


The Earp Heir Strikes Back

by bmovies212



Series: Earp Wars [3]
Category: Star Wars Original Trilogy, Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: AU Star Wars, AU Wynonna Earp, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, F/F, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-13
Updated: 2020-01-31
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:34:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 21
Words: 47,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21785299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bmovies212/pseuds/bmovies212
Summary: In the wake of their victory over their enemy, Wynonna and her friends must fight to survive and learn more about their past and themselves.
Relationships: Nicole Haught & Randy Nedley, Waverly Earp/Nicole Haught, Wynonna Earp & Nicole Haught, Xavier Dolls & Wynonna Earp
Series: Earp Wars [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1494062
Comments: 35
Kudos: 31





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While searching for Wynonna, a lone revenant has a surprising encounter

In deep space, a single pod rocketed past the stars.

The pod itself had no markings; it could have come from any ship built in the last hundred years. The only clue to its origin came when someone saw its inhabitant, a nervous-looking but determined revenant known as Cal. He looked around worriedly, but the pod did not have much in the way of space. All he could do was hold on tight and hope that whatever planet his container had been aimed at didn’t have the heir and did have civilization…. or at least a bar.

One of the functions inside the pod began beeping insistently, and Cal moved to shut it down. He looked outside and saw a planet ahead of him. He couldn’t make much out in the way of features due to massive cloud cover, but thought that one area of the planet seemed a little darker than the surrounding areas. Figuring that that meant land, he grabbed the rudimentary stick and attempted to maneuver the pod to land somewhere in that area.

The pod broke through the utmost layer of the unknown planet’s atmosphere, and immediately data started spilling across the screen in front of Cal – everything from exterior temperatures (17℃) to nearby population figures (plenty of wildlife, but nothing in terms of people). Cal craned his neck to see out the window when something smacked the pod hard, sending it spiraling. “Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit…” Cal muttered. Outside, he saw dozens of branches whirling around him as the pod spun. He grabbed the stick and uttered a silent prayer to any gods that might be listening just in time to be jolted forward. A mixture of dirt and liquid splashed up around him as the pod slammed against something and went rolling.

Panicked, Cal examined the control panel in front of him. A blinking button flashed on the console, and he hit it, praying that it would slow his momentum. A giant chute deployed from the rear of the pod and instantly got tangled in some nearby trees that bent but held under the unexpected arrival. Cal undid his safety harness and shut off the interior systems of what had nearly been his eternal coffin. Cursing under his breath, he turned towards the exit hatch and worked the sensor beside it, trying to force it open.

Once the hatch had opened, Cal nearly threw up. The air was extremely pungent and reminded him of a graveyard that had had all its residents exhumed and left out for a week. He stepped out of the pod and landed in a collection of mud and dead branches that had been churned up by his violent arrival. Shaking his head, he stood and pulled out a pocket mapper. “Okay, then…” he said. “Let’s see if we can find you here, little miss heir…”

“What heir?” said a voice from behind him, so loud it nearly caused him to scream. Once he’d recovered, he turned and saw a human behind him, seemingly unfazed by his arrival. It was an older male. He had a battered but serviceable cap on his head and was dressed simply in an old workshirt and jeans. The man smiled at him and said, “You lost, son?”

Cal shook his head. “No, I…I’m looking for someone. Someone important.”

The man laughed. “Well, we’re all important, son. It just falls to fate and other people to determine the matter of our importance, wouldn’t you say?”

Cal didn’t quite follow what the man said, but he smiled and nodded. “Yeah…. guess so.” He turned and got moving. “Well, see you around, old man.”

“What heir?” said the old man from in front of Cal. Cal blinked, trying to figure out how the old man had gotten in front of him so quickly. He looked behind him and saw where the old man had been…. or where he _thought_ he had been…

The man was still waiting for some response, apparently. “Wyatt Earp’s heir. A girl, goes by Wynonna.”

The smile faded from the old man’s face. “Ah…. now that is a pity.”

“She’s here?” said Cal excitedly.

“No, not at the present moment, although if my hunch is accurate, she’ll make her way to me before long.”

Cal laughed, relieved. “Hey, that’s good enough, pal. You just give me a place to hunker down until she gets here, and we’ll both be out of your hair faster than a nun can…” Cal trailed off as his attempt at a metaphor petered out. “Fast,” he finished lamely.

The old man nodded. “Yes, a real pity,” he said again. Before Cal could ask what he meant, the old man had shoved him against a tree. Cal struggled, but couldn’t free himself from the man’s grip. The old man looked around and sighed wearily. “Please wait here,” he said, and slammed Cal up against the tree. Cal slid to the ground, stunned, as the old man walked away. He tried to catch his breath and get moving before the guy returned, but his legs and arms didn’t seem to want to cooperate. Before they could wake up, the man had returned with a toolbox, and Cal redoubled his efforts to get away. Ignoring them, the man flipped Cal over and sat on top of him, holding him down. “Now, try not to move too much, son….my hands ain’t as steady as they used to be.” Cal felt something cut into his skull, and he began to scream.

The old man ignored the screams of the revenant as he operated. He had already gotten the skin around the skull removed and was currently working on cracking the parietal bone plate. He didn’t have a clean set of tools, but the scrounged hammer and chisel he was using would work well enough. After a few minutes of work, he’d managed to crack enough of the skull away to expose the necessary area. He gently lifted the remains of the skull out of his patient and began rooting around with both hands. Once he was sure he had a firm grip and enough space, he pulled, firmly but carefully.

The brain of the revenant came out better than expected. There was a small cut made by an uneven fragment, but that could be patched if needed. Working quickly before brain death could occur, the man pulled out a battery connected to two wires. Plugging the wires into the spongy mess, he flicked a custom-installed switch on the battery. A charge started flowing, and the man checked his connections. Nodding once, he turned to the quickly dying body that could no longer properly be called a revenant. Grunting, he grabbed hold of the man’s legs and pulled him over to the swamp he had so unceremoniously crashed in barely half an hour earlier. The pod itself was slowly sinking into the murky water, and within a day or two would be completely submerged. “Good enough,” grunted the man, and tossed the body of Cal back into it. Turning around, the man headed back to the brain and the still active device that had turned its former owner and all those who carried similar chips into revenants. If Clootie or any of his ‘men’ were tracking this one, it would not register as inactive and deceased until he turned off the electricity…something he had no intention of doing. Sighing, he looked to the sky, and to the woman who was no doubt hiding near one of the many stars visible in it.

“Soon, Miss Earp...soon.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This part is just meant to be a little prologue and introduce Juan Carlo, who will be taking the role of Yoda in tonight's show. He's a little more hands-on than Yoda, but according to my beta reader for this chapter, Umachica, he still plays as good as the show's version.
> 
> More to come!


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wynonna reflects on events since the destruction of the God's Tower....

“It is a dark time for the Rebellion. Although the _God’s Tower_ has been destroyed, Serpenten troops loyal to the evil Church of Clootie have driven the Rebel forces from their hidden base and pursued them—”

“ _Wynonna!_ ” the radio squawked, nearly causing the bored and surprised fighter to drop it in the snow surrounding her. She barely caught it and said, “Y-yeah? What’s up, Haught?”

Instead of answering right away, there was a pause, followed by Nicole saying, “ _Were you just narrating?_ ”

“You’re a narrate,” said Wynonna quickly.

“ _But I just heard_ —”

_Dammit! Must’ve held the button in.._. “Hey, so did you want something besides telling me you’re hearing things?”

“ _Yeah_ ,” said the smuggler-turned-rebel. “ _Just got the last of my sensors checked and cleared. I’m heading back in. You coming?_ ”

“Uh….no, I’m kinda antsy. Think I’ll stay out a little longer, do one more sweep.”

The radio was silent for a minute, and when Nicole came back on there was a slight edge to her voice now – not threatening, just disapproving. “ _You can’t put that talk off forever, you know_.”

Wynonna grimaced, angry that she’d been seen through so easily. “What talk?” she said innocently.

“ _That person….” Waverly_ , Wynonna’s mind filled in. For what they were saying, it wouldn’t do to reveal specific characteristics about Wynonna’s lost-and-found-again sister that might clue people into her identity. Even if she wasn’t an Earp by blood, she was still both Wynonna’s sister _and_ a princess…even if the princess part _was_ in title only, now that Alderaan had been blown up.

As if she’d read Wynonna’s mind, Nicole was now saying, “ _That person deserves to know the truth_.”

“And they will, when another person is ready to tell them, and _only_ that other person. We clear there, Haught-Pack?”

Rather than give her an answer, Wynonna just heard Nicole sigh over the radio. “ _I’ll see you back at base. Try not to waste too much time. Sun goes down in less than an hour_.” 

“Roger,” said Wynonna. In the distance, she heard a whirring motor start up as Nicole’s speeder activated. Wynonna sighed and activated her own speeder, heading off in the opposite direction, further from Echo Base, the hastily thrown together outpost that was serving as the base for the more militaristic side of the rebellion. Most of the civilian side was drifting out there in space somewhere, slowly moving from system to system and looking for a more permanent next refuge. Unfortunately, after the Battle of Lihevhat, a good chunk of their attack ships had been (fatally) taken out of commission, and the bosses wanted an empty place near enough to communication and trade lines that they might be able to get something delivered, either to them directly or to the fleet. That meant their options were either a system-large asteroid field, a super dense gas planet, or here – the ice planet of Kholod.

On the whole, Wynonna would have preferred the asteroid field. It certainly would have been easier to navigate than her current relationships with her mentor-possessed gun, her secret sister, or the one person in the galaxy besides herself who knew about said sister….and was pressuring her to make it not a secret. Wynonna gunned the engine one more time, heading off towards the ice hills…

…and remembered…

“ _Goddammit, Earp, wait a second!”_

_Wynonna strides on down the hall, ignoring the protests of her smuggler friend. Her mind is focused solely on the feast she plans on making for herself in the wake of having just been given a shiny necklace/medal reward for saving everyone’s ass._ Boy _, she thinks, running her fingers over the embossed plate_. If I’d known doing good deeds paid so well, I would have started doing it ages ago.

_A hand pulls on her shoulder and whirls her around. “I said_ wait _!” Wynonna feels herself pushed against the wall and sees a freaked-out Captain Nicole Haught standing in front of her and not-quite-holding her inescapably against the rock walls that make up the complex. Although there’s no anger in Haught’s eyes, Wynonna knows that she is not getting to the commissary without _some _kind of explanation._

_“Alright,” she says casually. “What’s up?”_

_“What’s up?_ What’s up?!” _Nicole isn’t exactly screaming, but her patience is definitely on the brink. “What’s up is that you just dropped the bombshell that you think Waverly is your sister, and I don’t think you meant in the ‘bonded for life’ kind of way.”_

_“Well—”_

_“Shut up,” says Nicole bluntly. “PLEASE tell me you were just joking around or speaking figuratively or….hell, just give me something more to go off of!”_

_Wynonna bites her lip and wonders just how much of the truth Nicole can handle right now._ Fuck it _, she thinks. “It’s true.”_

_Nicole stares at Wynonna, trying to determine if the cavalier barmaid-turned-fighter is still joking around. “Meaning…?”_

_“Meaning that my momma popped me out, and then six years, one busted marriage, and fourteen or so systems later, she popped Waverly out, too.” Wynonna pauses for a moment, and then says, “She doesn’t know.”_

_“Wait, seriously? How—”_

_“Did you miss the fourteen systems part of that sentence? Dig the space dust out of her ears, Haught-burn.”_

_Nicole nods slowly, considering this information and all its implications. “We have to tell her.”_

_“No,” says Wynonna flatly._

_“Wynonna, come on. The girl just lost her entire planet. She deserves to know that she still has family, people who care about her—”_

_“Given how you two ended the ceremony, I think she already knows that.”_

_“You know what I mean.” Nicole folds her arms across her chest, trying to intimidate Wynonna into doing things the supposed ‘right way’._

Fat chance. _“No,” she says again._

_“Then I’ll tell her,” says Nicole, and she begins to turn away. Without thinking, Wynonna shoves Haught against the opposite wall and leans in close, shoving the barrel of Peacemaker, her inherited laser pistol that had been specially modified ages ago to permanently disable revenants, up against Haught’s stomach. Haught’s eyes flicker downward, and then back up to Wynonna. “You wouldn’t.”_

_Wynonna stays silent, and then pulls Peacemaker back. “I’ll tell her myself…eventually. I’m still getting used to the idea myself, though, so don’t rush me on it, okay?”_

_Nicole nods, accepting this. “Fine. You_ should _tell her, though.”_

_“I will, I will. No idea what she’ll say when I do, but—”_

_“What who’ll say to what?” says a bright voice from around the corner. Nicole and Wynonna both quickly separate, just as Waverly comes around the corner. “Hi,” she says, smiling sweetly._

_“Hi,” says Wynonna._

_“Hi, cutie!” says Nicole, her voice nearly squeaking. Wynonna turns to face her, her eyes going wide in an expression meant to say ‘Don’t you dare…’_

_Waverly’s face crinkles. “Don’t ‘cutie’ me,” she says, although she’s smiling. “What are you two up to?” she purrs, stepping close to Nicole and hugging her tightly._

_“Oh, just talking…about stuff.” Nicole’s eyes have gone from anger to panic. ‘_ Help me!’ _she mouths at Wynonna._

_“Hey, Waves!” says Wynonna quickly. “Haught and I were just heading to the commissary for a little grub. You’re probably super-busy and can’t join us, but you want us to grab you something?”_

_Waverly’s shoulders slump as she’s reminded of her duties. “No….I’m not really hungry just now…” She trails off and winks none-too-subtly at Nicole. “Maybe later?”_

_“Sure, later. Later’s good. Later can happen.” The words practically spill out of Nicole, and it’s all Wynonna can do not to actually shoot her just to make them stop._

_Waverly doesn’t seem to notice, though, or she just assumes that the nervousness is because of how openly they’re talking about having sex later. She gets up on her toes and kisses Nicole, the foamy material of her gown stretching as she connects with her beloved’s lips. Ironically, the kiss actually seems to calm Nicole down as she relaxes into Waverly, enjoying her taste. The two women are going for so long that Wynonna has to clear her throat to remind them that no, they are not in fact alone….or even behind a closed door. The two separate with matching grins on their faces. “Later,” Waverly says again, and walks away, pulling on Nicole’s hand for as long as she can._

_“Later,” Nicole echoes, not moving but not releasing her grip either. Eventually they do break apart, and Waverly heads off to take care of some form of important rebel business. She stares at the receding form of Waverly, then looks back to Wynonna. “You_ will _tell her,” she says._

_It’s not a question, and Wynonna knows it. “Just give me some time.”_

Nicole had given her time, alright. Plenty of it. It was now six months since that conversation, and while Wynonna was fairly certain that Waverly didn’t suspect anything out of the ordinary, Wynonna knew that Nicole’s patience had to be wearing thin.

Looking up, Wynonna checked the position of the sun and estimated that there was maybe half an hour of sunlight left. If she left now, she would be able to make it back to base just as the sun was dipping below the horizon and just before temperatures dropped from a moderately survivable -9℉ to a lethal -100℉. Destination decided, she gunned the speeder’s engine and started turning around.

A high-pitched whistle filled the air, abruptly interrupting her plans. Looking around, Wynonna saw something streak through the air and land in the mountains, not too far from her current position. “Shit,” she muttered. She keyed her communicator. “Base, it’s Earp. Come in.”

There was a pause as the transmission went through. “ _Copy, Earp. You find something?_ ”

“Maybe. Something just crashed into the mountains. Not sure what. I’m gonna check it out.”

“ _Clock shows less than half an hour until nightfall.”_

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll check this out, then gun it back to base. Five-minute detour, max.” She clicked off and maneuvered the speeder over to the impact site, taking it slow so as not to crash into any surprise boulders. When she arrived at the site, alarm bells started ringing in her head almost immediately. At the edge of the mountain range, a crater had been dug into the ground. Wynonna immediately leaped off the bike and drew Peacemaker from it’s holster. She stepped forward into the crater, keeping her guard up.

The first thing she noticed was the smell – metallic, with a tinge of rocket fuel, and a coppery aftertaste. That basically guaranteed that whatever had landed here was man-made. Of course, _that_ brought up the question of whether man-made meant man…or not. Moving carefully down the torn-up path, Wynonna looked into the hole and saw a simple escape pod. It had been opened already, but there was no sign of whoever had been inside it.

“ _Wynonna.”_

“Doc?” Wynonna glanced at Peacemaker, where the electronically stored memory of Doc Holliday resided. She had been trying to get the gun modified so that Doc could just talk to them instead of going through nearby radio equipment, but so far…

“ _Wynonna_ ,” said the voice again, and now she recognized that it had come not from the gun, but from behind her. It _was_ Doc’s voice, though…she turned slowly, and saw a figure with glowing eyes standing behind her. She couldn’t make out any features, but that was okay – the glowing eyes were enough of a giveaway that she was staring at yet another revenant.

“Hey there, freak-show,” said Wynonna. “Glad you could make it here. I was just thinking how boring things were getting, and then here you are, a nice soon-to-be-dead revenant ot make my day more fun by getting killed—”

The revenant threw its head back and screamed loudly. Wynonna stopped moving and began looking around for any additional revenants the talker might have brought with him. Nothing approached her, and she breathed a sigh of relief just as something barreled into her from behind—

( _Stupid! Distraction!_ )

\--and sent her tumbling down the mountain side, flipping end over end. She had just enough time to see the slab of rock in front of her before slamming into it, and then she was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was originally planning to use another one of the seven (Jim Miller, from episode 2) on this planet, but ultimately decided his hunter skills could be better used somewhere else in the story, and so I went with the deceptive Vinnie from episode 5 instead.
> 
> Hope you all enjoyed my callback to 2.7 with Nicole's excitement over Waverly's interruption in the flashback....and as I pointed out in the penultimate chapter of book one, Waverly's gown is meant to be the same she was wearing at the end of season 1 at the party. Nothing to really confuse non-viewers who've stumbled onto this story, but still a nice treat for fans.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At the rebel base, problems for both Nicole and Waverly make themselves known

Inside Echo Base, the place was practically a hive of activity. People checked speeders and snowcraft to make sure they remained fully functional. An entire unit was in control of making sure the main transport ships were ready to go at a moment’s notice. Temperature regulators throughout the complex kept an eye on everything from fighters to atmosphere and everything and everyone in-between, managing to both keep the inner environment livable while masking their heat signature from any ships doing scans of the planet. If there was ever a moment when the constant activity were to cease, the only possible explanation would be that everyone and everything in the base had been wiped out. 

It was this organized chaos into which Captain Nicole Haught drove her speeder. She slowed down to a relative crawl and guided herself around various people and obstacles until she reached the main vehicle storage unit for the base. Apart from a few mothballed X-Wings, most of the vehicles present were either portable speeders like the one she was currently using or stripped down and repurposed A-Wings, which had had their O2 circulators removed in favor of increased stability. There was one other vehicle, of course, but that one was in a class of its own.

Removing her helmet, Nicole tossed it to one of the nearby soldiers she had come to call friend over the last six months. “Hey, Haught,” said the man, a slightly pudgy, slightly older human about ten years her senior. “You should know…a message came in for you while you were out.”

“Really?” Nicole was surprised. “Since when are we on the delivery system?”

“Well, it didn’t come over our channels.”

Nicole blinked. “Okay….so whose channels did it come in on?”

“Yours….or your ship’s, anyway,” said the soldier simply. “Nedley’s been pissed about it for the last half-hour. You might want to check in on him.”

“Yeah, I’ll do that. Thanks, Brent.” The soldier nodded and went about the business of recharging and cleaning the speeder, and Nicole headed to the main hanger. Essentially an area of the cave that they had blasted out through judicious use of dynamite, missiles, and ingenuity, the area referred to as the hanger – actually just an especially large and clear area that happened to have exterior access – was where all the big ships lived, among them her own beloved _Stetson_. Although most people saw an old and outdated hunk of space trash, to Nicole it represented everything she ever wanted – flight, freedom, independence…and most importantly, a home.

As Nicole approached the _Stetson_ , various pieces of metal came flying off the roof. _What in the…_ “Nedley?” she called, craning her neck to get a better view of what was happening on her ship.

“Idiots!” came the reply from somewhere above her. “You morons wouldn’t know a hyperdrive initializer from a toilet! How you’ve lasted this long without shooting yourselves in the—”

“ _Nedley!_ ” she called again. This time the shouting stopped and a very disgruntled looking human male of advanced years came walking along the proverbial “brim” of her hat shaped ship which housed both shield and engine tech in it. He had abandoned his normal sheriff’s uniform for a workman’s outfit consisting of faded coveralls and an extremely tight white shirt. Astonishingly, and for some reason Nicole couldn’t fathom, his medal – one of three that had been awarded after the Battle of Lihevhat – was still pinned to his right breast. More impressively, Nedley had managed to keep that one spot completely clear of engine grease and oil…unlike the rest of him. He stared angrily down at her and said, “Where the hell have you been?”

“Out on patrol,” she said, a little shocked at his tone. “Why, what’s the matter?”

Nedley laughed ruefully. “The matter is that of all the ships in this place, not one of them has a spare generator that would work for our ship! You know what that means, right?”

Nicole could guess. “No lightspeed?”

“No lightspeed,” confirmed Nedley.

Nicole thought about it for a second. “What if we patch it over through the main engine? Our flight speed might take a hit, but it would be something, right?”

“Something that at best would last a week, maybe.”

“Still…” teased Nicole.

“Yeah, I’ll try it,” Nedley said finally. “Not like that’s our biggest concern anyway.”

 _Now what?_ “What does that mean?”

Rather than answer her, Nedley tossed a holo-chit at her from his position and went back to cursing the ship, the weather, the rebels, and possibly Nicole herself. Letting him be for the moment, Nicole went deeper into the base and headed for the bunks, hoping they would be deserted. Luck was with her, and she promptly slid the chit into an unused viewer.

For a brief moment, the screen was full of static as it attempted to convert the three-dimensional message for two-dimensional viewing. Nicole drummed her fingers on the desk, and a few seconds later found herself staring at the slug-faced image of her previous employer, Bunny Loblaw. “Hello, Nicole,” the Molluscan said. “I was so hoping to talk to you personally, but alas, you refuse to pick up the comm whenever I call you.”

“Yeah, maybe because you’re an ugly, hateful bitch,” muttered Nicole as the message played on.

“It’s been six months, my dear, and not one single credit has been delivered to my accounts by you. Do you know how that makes me feel? Do you know how _embarrassing_ that is, to have someone I’ve loved and cared for—”

“Yeah, right.”

“—for so long just up and leave me like that? It hurts, dear. It makes me think you don’t care about me. It makes me think that the only way I’ll get my money back is by taking it out of you and your crap ship when one of the many bounty hunters in the galaxy delivers your sorry ass to me personally” Bunny sighed dramatically. “You see what you’ve reduced me to? Now I’ll have to spend an additional hundred thousand credits on top of the ones you already lost me.” A sound that might have been a sob in a creature with emotions (or acting ability) escaped Bunny’s mouth, and the screen went black.

“Princess Waverly?”

“Hm?” Waverly turned slightly to acknowledge the man speaking, her eyes briefly flicking back to the computer screen where her smuggler love was pacing through the complex. A few more hours and they could shut down for the night, and then retire to Waverly’s own chambers, where Jeremy claimed to be working on an indoor sauna. Although she had her doubts about its practicality, the cyborg had been too excited at the idea for her to not let him try.

That was for later, though. “Yes, General Blaine. What were you saying?”

The general sighed and started over, having apparently grown used to Waverly’s inability to focus whenever Nicole was nearby. “We’re effectively at a stalemate. The shipyard we raided last month did help some, and those ships are currently with the civilian fleet. As far as we’re concerned, though, there’s nothing more to be done. We’re safe, but we’re not accomplishing anything, and it’s only a matter of time before the church finds us again.”

Waverly sighed. “Any base we make is always temporary, General. You know that.”

“I do,” said Blaine. “Unfortunately, my only suggestion risks drawing more attention to the civilians—”

“You think we should rejoin them. Properly.”

Blaine nodded. “I do.”

Waverly sighed, then brightened slightly as she saw Nicole coming in. Even as serious as she looked now, just being in her presence made Waverly feel stronger. “Very well,” she said. “Contact the fleet, and tell them to expect us within the week. Spread the word that we’ll be leaving soon.” The general nodded as Nicole approached, and Waverly let a small smile slip toward her. “Hey, you.”

“Hey back,” said Nicole, although her smile seemed…..forced. Nicole turned towards the general. “Perimeter is clean, and sensors are all fully functional. If anything larger than a cat tries to get near the base, you’ll know about it.”

“Good,” said Blaine. “And what about Commander Earp?”

“Wanted to do one more check before night hit.”

The general smiled thinly. “Good girl,” he said. “We could use more people as dedicated as her.” Waverly and Nicole both stifled a laugh – whatever other words could be used to describe Wynonna, ‘dedicated’ was not among them. The general noticed their reactions and said, “Something the matter?”

“No, sir,” said Nicole quickly. “Not….with that.”

“Meaning?” said Blaine. The laughter disappeared from Waverly as well as she focused on Nicole.

“I received a message while I was out,” she said. “An old debt of mine’s come due….one to Bunny Loblaw. She’s put out a pretty large bounty on me, and if I don’t pay her off….”

Blaine nodded. “Owing a debt isn’t an easy thing to get rid of, especially when it’s monetary….and when there’s hunters after you looking to cash in on it.”

Nicole smiled slightly. “Personal experience?”

“Just what I’ve heard.” Blaine took Nicole’s hand and pumped it. “You’re a hell of a pilot, Haught. I’d hate to lose you.”

“Thank you, sir.” Blaine moved off and left the two women alone. Waverly stood in front of the computers and stared at a guilty-looking Nicole. “You’re leaving?”

Nicole shrugged and looked as if she wanted to be anywhere else. “Can’t be helped….and it sounds like we’re all leaving soon enough, anyway.”

Gingerly, Waverly stepped toward her. “And here I thought we had convinced you to stay…”

“Don’t say that,” Nicole interrupted. “This isn’t me leaving because I don’t want to be here. This is me leaving to make sure I still have a head attached to my shoulders to look at you with.”

Waverly looked up at her. “It _is_ a rather nice thing to have….and to look at.”

Nicole put both arms around Waverly and pulled her close. “See? It’s not so bad…”

“But you’re still going—”

“Hey,” Nicole cut her off. “You are the smartest, prettiest, most awesome space princess in the whole damn _universe_ , and I really really like you….like, _so_ much. I take care of this, then I’m right back here, and we can spend as much time as we want together.”

Waverly stepped out of Nicole’s grasp. “You promise?”

Nicole crossed herself. “For life.”

Waverly smiled, stood up on her toes, and planted a kiss right on Nicole’s nose. “You better mean that, missy. I don’t want the woman I love running off and ending up dead before I can yell at her for running off.”

“No worries there.”

“Good, because—”

“WHOA! Sorry, guys! Didn’t realize you were busy!”

Nicole and Waverly pulled apart and saw Jeremy backing out of the room with his eyes covered as an amused looking Dolls stood nearby. “They are not even doing anything, Jeremy,” said the remodeled and reskinned DLS unit, who despite the lack of visible emotion on his face could now reasonably pass for a human, so long as no one asked him anything…or made him angry…or interacted with him in any way that would require him to speak as a normal human would.

Jeremy, their resident cyborg and data-cruncher, still had his eyes covered. “I know, but they were about to, and maybe they already had, and privacy and propriety and manners are things humans care about which I keep trying to tell you!”

“Guys…” said Nicole. “It’s fine. You’re not interrupting anything.”

Jeremy cautiously lowered his hands from his eyes. “Really?”

Waverly went over to her friend and assistant. “Really,” she said. “Now what did you need?”

Jeremy glanced at Dolls, who said. “We are seeking Commander Earp. Jeremy required her assistance with—”

“With a spatial and placement problem requiring material goods versus potential sauna placement,” finished Jeremy. Dolls continued to stare straight ahead, and something inside Waverly’s head began buzzing. “Is everything okay, Jeremy?”

“Oh, totally. What, you think I misread the temperature gauge when I was installing the sauna and cut too deep and too hot and flooded your bedroom?”

“Uh, I kinda do now,” put in Nicole.

Waverly sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Wynonna is still finishing up her patrol. I’m sure—”

“She can not be,” interrupted Dolls. “The sun has nearly finished setting.”

Waverly stopped talking. “She’s not back yet?”

“That;s what we were asking,” said Jeremy, but Waverly and Nicole were already running past him towards the radio room. Inside, various members of the team were either scrambling and descrambling signals coming to and from the base or else speaking through the signals and trying to relay orders. It was into this controlled chaos that Waverly Gibson burst in with an air of supreme authority and said, “Where’s Commander Earp?”

“She hasn’t come back yet,” said one technician. “Said she was going to check out a possible meteor strike.”

“How long ago was that?” asked Nicole.

“About forty minutes, max.”

Nicole looked at Waverly, concern etched across her face. “That’s just after I talked to her and started heading in.” She turned to the tech. “Do you have her last position?”

The tech typed a few commands into his computer. “Right next to the southern mountains.”

Nicole nodded. “I’m going.”

Waverly and the tech turned to her, but she was already leaving the room. “Nicole!” She chased after her, struggling to keep up with Nicole’s determined stride, but every time she rounded a corner Nicole was already rounding the next one. By the time she reached the garage, Nicole was already yelling at one of the soldiers about taking a speeder out. “ _Captain Haught!_ ” she shouted, and both Nicole and the soldier looked at her as she angrily marched over.

The soldier was the first to speak up. “Princess Waverly, thank god. Can you please tell the captain that it’s already much too cold for the speeders to go out?”

Nicole had apparently already heard this argument. “I understand that, but our friend is currently stuck out there. Are you suggesting we leave her?”

The soldier dropped his gaze. “Well…no, but—”

“Both of you, stop talking,” ordered Waverly. “Captain Haught, you do understand how cold it is out there, yes?”

Nicole visibly swallowed whatever she’d been thinking of saying. “Yes,” she said.

“You know what the effects of extreme cold are on the human body?”

Nicole hesitated. “Well…not specifically, but I would think—”

“At -50℉, frostbite can set in in five minutes. After that, a person can feel sluggish and stupid. Hallucinations, lost or slow time, shortness of breath…” Waverly wanted to go on, but Nicole stopped her.

“I got it,” said Nicole calmly.

Waverly looked up at her and struggled to stay angry. If she was angry, she would be too hot to worry. If she wasn’t worrying, she wouldn’t be scared. If she wasn’t scared…

One look into Nicole’s big round eyes, so strong and confident, and all of Waverly’s rationalizations fell away. “She’ll be cold,” she said softly.

“I know.”

Waverly sniffled, and a tear formed in her left eye. Nicole wiped it away with one gloved hand as the soldier reluctantly handed her some extra gloves. “Please, Nicole…find her, and come straight back.”

“If I can, I will,” she said. Nicole hugged her tightly through the many layers of coats and insulation each of them had on, and then before Waverly could stop her, she had climbed onto the speeder and was heading out of the hanger, determined to find Wynonna or—

 _No._ Waverly shut that thought down and stared into the vast white expanse just outside. From her position, she could already hear a wind kicking up as more snow started to fall. She felt someone take her hand as someone else put a hand on her shoulder, and saw Jeremy and Dolls on either side of her. Although neither robot said anything, just the gestures spoke volumes.

 _Please, God_ , she prayed silently. _Keep them safe._

As if in response, the outside wind blew again, and Waverly shuddered...though whether it was from cold or fear, she couldn’t say.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The information about cold effects I got from a National Geographic website, listed here: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2018/1/140107-cold-snap-united-states-nation-temperatures-extreme-science-health-body/
> 
> So glad to be back at this. I dont really have a schedule, but hopefully I can get two chapters out per week. Wish me luck!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Nicole searches for Wynonna, the Earp Heir is forced to brave both revenants and the elements in order to survive.

The first thing Wynonna was aware of was the sounds – repetitive and wet. As she blearily opened her eyes, she tried to look around for the source of them and her head swam, almost bringing her to full-on puking. That was when Wynonna noticed the second and probably more important thing – she was strung up and upside-down like yesterday’s big catch, having apparently been dragged to some sort of cavern by the revenant that had attacked her outside.

The third thing was Peacemaker, lying on the ground about five feet from her.

Wynonna swore, and the sounds ceased. “Doc?” she called out cautiously, and Peacemaker began to glow.

“No no no! No glow! Silence the glow!” Gradually, Peacemaker stopped glowing and began to look like a normal gun again. Quickly she patted her other pockets to see if anything else had been lost, but all her supplies were still in their place. Slowly, she pulled out her radio, switched it on, and spoke into the speaker. “Doc, you there?”

The radio crackled for a few seconds, and then the silky smooth voice of Doc Holliday came on. “ _Always_.”

Wynonna breathed a sigh of relief. If anyone had seen her, they would think that she was talking to someone miles away. The much stranger truth, though, was that the radio was a mere conduit for the data that had been stored on Doc’s own chip, that strange device that had been implanted in him years ago by Father Clootie, and that had subsequently kept him alive and young well into his nineties. What nobody (except possibly Clootie himself) could have expected was that electrocuting Doc and touching an electronic device to him would end up saving a version of himself to that device…a fact that Wynonna was still getting used to, since it essentially meant she was carrying her grandfather’s old partner in a holster on her waist at all times. The only bonus to the whole situation was the realization that Doc could, thanks to an increased capacitor and several other complex modifications to the gun by Jeremy, somehow push his signal into nearby electronics, creating a rudimentary communication bridge that meant talking with him, despite the death of his body, was still possible.

Useful as talking was, though, that wasn’t what was needed now. Hoping that he had been aware when they were attacked, Wynonna asked, “How far do you think we’ve traveled?”

“ _Not too far…our friend down there was moving us for maybe fifteen minutes before finding this cave._ ”

“Okay…and how long was I out for?”

“Oh, you’ve been out for hours, little lady!” Wynonna looked at the source of the new voice as its owner came into view. This particular revenant was so skinny that he looked as though he hadn’t eaten in months. His already greasy hair was matted to his scalp, and the way he leered at Wynonna reminded her of vultures surrounding a dead body. He approached Wynonna with a grin. “You calling for help there, honey? Won’t do you no good.”

“Oh, well, you know us girls. We just love talking on the phone, running up charges.”

The Vulture grunted and grabbed the radio. “Who is she talking to?”

“ _This is John Henry Holliday, friend_ ,” said Doc over the radio. The Vulture stopped grinning and held the radio up to his mouth. “Doc Holliday died, partner.”

“ _Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated, son, and may I add – that is a fine belt you are wearing._ ”

The Vulture gasped and turned around, looking for Doc’s location. As soon as his back was to her, Wynonna began swinging, trying to reach for his belt. If she could reach it and pull….she swung once and missed the catch, but Doc was still talking. “ _That’s it, young’n…you’re so close…_ ”

Shivering not with cold but fear, the revenant raised the radio to his mouth again. “Bobo killed you…on the station.”

“ _And how many supposed deaths have you survived?”_

 _That’s it, Doc, keep him talking for a few more seconds._ She swung back towards The Vulture and this time grabbed his belt. He looked down in surprise at the unexpected weight and tried pulling away just as Wynonna flexed her legs. Before Wynonna was aware what was happening, her feet were sliding out of her boots and she was hitting the ground…..and still holding onto a revenant.

Quickly, Wynonna rolled to her right and looked around for Peacemaker. She spotted it to her left, just against a wall on the other side. Halfway between it and her, Vulture was realizing that his prey was no longer as secure as it once was. His face morphed slightly as he lunged for her, and Wynonna met him with a haymaker to his right cheek. Wynonna tried to run for the gun, but her shoeless foot sank deep into the icy snow that covered the cave floor.

“Mother _fuck!_ ” Giving up on walking, Wynonna yanked her foot out of the hole just in time to be tackled again by Vulture. Despite his haggard appearance, the revenant packed a hell of a punch and Wynonna was sent flying out of the snow. She felt herself get flipped on her back as Vulture said, “No running! Del Rey wants you gone, and gone is what you’ll be!”

“Can’t I just be single and sexy?” she quipped. The revenant screamed again, and Wynonna saw Peacemaker within arm’s reach. She grabbed it and swung it around just as Vulture bent to take a bite out of her, connecting squarely with his jaw and knocking him off-balance. Pushing off against the wall, she pulled as far left as she could and was able to knock Vulture off of her. As he lay in the snow, Wynonna quickly turned and clocked him in the head once more. “Word of advice, dickhead,” she said, standing up. “Next time you wanna tie up a lady, get her permission.” She pressed the barrel of Peacemaker to his head. “Make your peace…and leave mine alone.” She pulled the trigger, and within seconds the head of her former captor had been vaporized.

Wynonna let the gun fall to her side. She looked around the cave and realized it was a lot smaller than she had previously thought – maybe twenty feet deep at most, with a ten-foot-high ceiling. Outside, the wind was blowing fiercely, and the dark sky proved that Vulture had been right about one thing – she’d been asleep long enough for night to fall.

“ _That does not sound like something you wanna be walking into, Wynonna,_ ” said Doc, though his voice was slightly muffled. Wynonna turned and tracked the sound and was soon digging the radio out of the snow. “ _Maybe you should stay here a bit, see if it dies down_.”

“It won’t die down until morning, Doc; we both know that.” Wynonna reattached the radio to her belt and put Peacemaker back in its holster. “You said the speeder was fifteen minutes away, right?”

“ _I said I believed we moved for fifteen minutes, and that’s going by how fast he was moving._ ”

Wynonna nodded and freed her boots from the rope that had been holding her up. As she put them back on, she said, “Well, that’s still a destination.” After making sure all her seals were set and there was nothing left of use in the cave, she went out.

Nicole drove the speeder she’d borrowed through the snow. She moved slowly, careful not to stray from the preprogrammed path towards Wynonna’s last known location. The flashing red temperature gauge was a cause for concern, but so far all systems were functioning and she was still on track. The emergency supply pack she’d grabbed on her way out was nestled comfortably behind her, and with any luck she’d find Wynonna cursing the galaxy and snug in other own tent with a dead battery and radio keeping her company.

As she approached the edge of the mountains, she slowed her speed further and kept her eyes peeled, the goggles on her head protecting her eyes from the whipping snow. If Wynonna was still alive, Nicole hoped to God she had managed to get a shelter up, or at least find some sort of cover. The pathfinder said that the other speeder was just ahead…

 _There_.

Nicole pulled up alongside the abandoned vehicle. Judging by the amount of snow on it, Wynonna had been gone for at least an hour. She opened the small cargo hatch in back and saw that it was fully stocked with flares, a first aid kit, and an insulated self-building tent. 

_Plenty of tools….but no Wynonna. Where the hell are you?_

Stuck in one place with no destination, Nicole headed back to her speeder. “Base, it’s Haught, come back.”

The line crackled for a minute, and when someone picked up on the other end, it was all Nicole could do not to turn around and head back. “ _Ni—ole?”_ came Waverly’s melodic voice, broken up badly by the storm. “ _Whe—you?_ ”

“I’ve just reached the mountains,” she said, hoping that some of this got through. “Her speeder’s undamaged and stocked. No sign of Wynonna herself, though.”

There was some more static. “ _—ight?_ ”

 _Am I alright? Or maybe something about night…_ “I’m fine. I’m going to set up a shelter and then scout around. Hopefully she’s not too far.”

The radio sputtered something else, but Nicole couldn’t even make out some of it. Instead, she said, “I’ll come back when I have her, I promise. I love you.” She clicked off just as the radio died fully, followed shortly by the speeder itself

“Great…final declaration complete.” She threw the radio down and went to the rear of her vehicle. Popping open her own trunk, she removed the tent and set it for low temperature/high altitude deployment. That would keep it warm inside, and increased density on the bottom layer would keep it from being blown around too much. With that taken care of, Nicole drew two flares and fired them into the air, hoping like hell that the right person would see them.

“ _—m—ine. Set up—out—far._ ”

Waverly turned towards the nearby General Blaine. “Are there any old mines near where Wynonna was?”

The general shook his head. “Closest thing to it is a cave system, but it was never developed by anyone.”

Waverly took up the radio again. “Nicole, just be really careful. We don’t know what’s out there.”

The response sounded final. “ _—come back—her. Miss—love—_ ”

Waverly put the radio down and closed her eyes. Although they had only known each other for barely half a year, Waverly had never felt closer to any two people than she did Wynonna Earp and Nicole Haught. Losing one would be horrible, but losing both…

At a nearby computer, Jeremy said, “Temperature’s dropping. Could hit thirty below before the night’s over.” When he looked up and saw his friend’s face, though, he quickly added, “Of course, that’s just a prediction, and we all know how inaccurate both psychics and the weather people can be. I’m sure it’s fine.”

Unable to speak, Waverly nodded and turned away from the room, only to bump into a concerned looking Nedley. “Someone just told me…” he said. “She went out there? After Wynonna?”

Waverly nodded and was unable to stop the tears forming in her eyes. Nedley pulled her into a big hug and rocked her gently, both praying silently for the safe return of their friends.

_Fucking snow…fucking revenants…fucking legs…_

Wynonna pushed her way up the slope of the mountain. The storm had been raging so hard that she could barely see in front of her face. Now, as she managed her way up yet another rocky slope, she gasped and looked around, trying to determine where she’d come out.

She was at the edge of a big plain, very close to the edge of the range. Below her, after maybe half a mile of descent, she could see a valley that could have been the one she started the night in….or could have been miles away, depending on how fast Vulture had moved. On top of that, there was still the distance back to base, which would have been twenty minutes by speeder. Since she was walking through knee deep snow, add maybe ten hours to that, and…

_I’m fucked._

Stubbornly, Wynonna pressed on. If life had drilled one thing into her, it was that the longer you stayed still, the worse a situation got….that, and that not doing anything was as good as quitting, and she was no quitter. Not now, not ever.

In front of her, a pair of lights suddenly lit up the sky. Wynonna looked and saw two brilliant explosions of yellow and green. _Flares_ , she thought. Either someone else was calling for help, or someone wanted people to know where they were. The trails they left seemed to originate from nearby….just on the other side of the valley.

“About time,” muttered Wynonna, as she got moving again.

Nicole sat in the tent and waited. She wasn’t sure what she was waiting for, exactly – an idea, a sign, the end of the storm. It didn’t really matter, though—with the tent setup, the flares deployed, and the storm seriously limiting visibility, the best play she could think of was to stay here and let her body build up as much heat as it could before heading off into the night.

Outside the tent, she heard a crunching noise. She held her breath and listened closely. It was followed by a second a few seconds later. cautiously, Nicole pulled her pistol from its holster and wrapped both hands around the grip. Slowly, she leaned outside and looked around. The front area of the tent was clear of anything. Nicole stepped outside but stuck close to the edge of the tent, trying to hide as much of herself as possible. The sounds had come from the rear of the tent….

Nicole poked her head around the side of the tent and at first saw nothing between the snow and the blackness of night. From her pocket she withdrew a small battery-powered light and flicked it on. The bright beam cut through the night and immediately landed on a face that had turned bright red and shiny, and was covering fast with snow.

“Wynonna!” Nicole yelled happily. Storing the gun, Nicole made her way through the snow drifts to help her friend. “God, am I happy to see you. Everyone at the base is worried, and Waverly was practically frantic…”

Slowly, Wynonna turned her head and looked at Nicole. “….Haught?”

“Yeah…yeah, it’s me. Come on, let’s get you inside.”

For some reason, Wynonna didn’t move. “Are…” she coughed once and tried again. “Are you…Haught?”

 _Oh, god…please don’t let her be blind, please—_ “Yeah, Wynonna, it’s me, Nicole Haught. Remember? Your favorite punching bag?”

Wynonna took Nicole’s gloved hands in her own and said slowly, “Are…you…Haught?”

Confused and worried now, Nicole said, “Yes, Wynonna; it’s Nicole Haught.”

Wynonna let her shoulders slump and said something. Nicole stepped closer and said, “What? I didn’t catch that.”

Wynonna leaned close to Nicole and said in a voice that was barely more than a whisper, “Humor is wasted on you.”

For a second, Nicole didn’t understand what Wynonna meant. When the realization hit, she let out a brief laugh and, shaking her head, said, “Never miss an opportunity, do you?” Nicole took the ice cold brunette’s hands and led her into the much warmer tent. “Come on, ice queen…let’s get you dethawed.”

“I thought you’d never ask.” 


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As a rescue is made, larger threats take shape.

Robert Del Rey was not happy….an increasingly frequent occurrence these days.

Around him, Serpenten military officers were tracking each and every one of the hundreds of revenants that had been sent out to find the Earp bitch. From the farthest corners of the galaxy they had all been recalled, and each was assigned a planet or moon based on the gathered profile data obtained after examining past known locations of rebel bases. Once the data, limited though it was, had been analyzed, the beginnings of a pattern had emerged, and whether it was right or wrong, Del Rey would be a fool to ignore even the slightest lead.

As he stalked the aisles between stations, his mind turned to thoughts of what he would do to that girl once he found her and her comrades, those fools who had quite literally shoved his ship out of their way back during the battle that had ended in the destruction of the _God’s Tower_. The damage had not been life-threatening (though given his kind’s resilience, the very term ‘life-threatening’ took on a whole new meaning), but it had been bad enough to force him to spend a week getting entirely too familiar with the interior of his craft as he jumped from system to system in an effort to reconvene with rest of Clootie’s forces.

Now, he was determined to track down those fools who had defeated and embarrassed him. An entire area on his ship had been given over to monitoring every single revenant that Lord Clootie had ensured the creation of. It was a simple game of exposure – send out enough revenants, and sooner or later one of them would run into her and her gun. Once that gun took out said revenant, all that was needed was to track the location its chip had last broadcast from and send the entire fleet in after her…and presumably, the rest of her friends in the rebellion, too.

The familiar scent of fear entered Del Rey’s nostrils, and he slowly turned around to face the petrified officer behind him. Before the worm could even utter a single syllable, Del Rey growled. “You have them?”

The worm cleared his throat and attempted to speak. “We….possibly, Lord Bo – Del Rey. There are—”

Bobo’s fist flew out and sent the worm flying. He leaped over the intervening space between them and was instantly crouched and in front of the worm’s face. “What was that?”

“Del Rey,” gasped the worm, who was no doubt deeply regretting his slip. “We…we have narrowed down their location to two planets.”

“Good boy.” Del Rey rose and got off the officer. “Explain.”

As the worm continued to gasp, one of the seated officers spoke up. “There are anomalies occurring with two revenants, Lord Del Rey.” Del Rey stepped over the worm and headed for the officer that was speaking. “Both were sent towards planets that fit the given profile – lack of evolved life, minimal capability of supporting life, and proximity within five light-years to normal shipping or transit lanes.”

Del Rey nodded and read the badge pinned to the young man’s chest: _Gardner_. “Where are they, young brother?”

Brother Gardner didn’t answer him directly. “The first anomaly belonged to the revenant known as Cal. While his chip is still active, none of the commands for monitoring him are returning anything, nor have they since the moment he landed.”

Gardner punched a series of controls, and true enough: despite the chip on Cal functioning, all visual and audio feeds were completely blank. “What planet was he on?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

Del Rey’s rage came on and he turned towards the nitwit who dared to declare what was important to him. “ _What?_ ”

“The second anomaly is more interesting,” said Gardner, almost as though he hadn’t even heard Del Rey. “It happened on Kholod.” The boy switched monitors and pulled up a new screen. “Approximately four hours after making land, Vincent’s chip went fully offline.”

As quickly as it had come, Del Rey’s rage dissipated. “Four hours?’

“Yes, sir.”

Del Rey stared at the screen greedily. “That’s the one.” He turned towards Gardner. “Send out an alert to all ships in the sector. We’ve located the rebels and will be dealing with them shortly.”

Gardner grinned. “Very good, sir.”

By morning, the snowstorm had dissipated and Kholod had returned to icy calmness. With no word having been received from either Nicole or Wynonna, Waverly had given the order for all available pilots to commence a low orbit search in the AA-wings – the ones that had been modified for planetary maneuvers and cleverly renamed from their original A-shape moniker to now mean “altitude adjusted”.

From the control room, Waverly listened intently to the various reports that were coming in from all craft, pacing back and forth. On the other side of the room, Nedley was the exact opposite of her, standing completely still, his twitching mustache the only clue that he was just as worried. Although the AAs had been searching for over an hour in a steadily expanding grid, the mountains and weather meant that getting a clear transmission to them was a 50/50-shot at best. Add to that the fact that they had been outside in subzero temperatures for more than twelve hours, and…

 _We’ll find them_ , Waverly told herself. _We have to._

“ _Commander Earp, come in. This is Bandit One_.” Allena’s voice on the comm cut through the silence of the room. After the battle of Lihevhat, with only three survivors from the whole attack (not counting Nicole), trained pilots were at a premium, with Wynonna’s fellow survivors Allena Zekedan and Caleb Barret being the only ones who were both trained and experienced. A decision was made to rebuild from the ground up with anyone and everyone who was willing to sit in a fighter. Although some petitioned Wynonna to take on the leadership role, that position had been reset to a joint casting of Allena and Caleb after Wynonna’s first training session ended with the entire squad drunk and throwing up in their fighters after stealing the base’s entire liquor supply – an adventure that, to Waverly’s chagrin, had resulted in the name ‘Bandit Squad’. 

Now, those fighters were searching high and low for two people with no ship and no sustained way of staying warm. Switching the main screen to Bandit Four, the call continued to go out. “ _Captain Haught and Commander Earp…if you can hear me, please copy._ ”

There was a brief crackle of static on the line, and then Waverly heard Nicole’s voice. “ _Good morning! You guys wouldn’t be heading towards Echo Base, would you?_ ”

Waverly nearly fainted with relief as Allena broadcast, “ _Echo Base, we got them – edge of the valley. Circling for landing and recovery._ ”

Hours later, Waverly and Nicole were waiting outside one of the bacta tanks in the medical area, observing its lone occupant.

“She looks….almost peaceful,” said Waverly.

“Yeah,” agreed Nicole. “Like a swan, or a fish.”

“ _I can hear you guys, you know_ ,” said Wynonna through speakers attached to the tank that were hooked up to a microphone in her rebreather.

“Definitely a fish,” said Waverly. “Maybe….oh, what’s that one with the teeth?”

“A shark?” supplied Nicole.

“No, it’s smaller than that…”

“Oh, a piranha!”

“Right! A piranha!”

“ _I hate you guys so much right now_.”

“Yeah,” said Nicole, leaning in close. “Quick and vicious, but dumb as a box of sand.”

“ _So much_.”

Waverly sighed dramatically. “It’s too bad we can’t talk to her….or that she can’t talk to us.”

“Yeah, but I think I know what she’d say.”

“Oh?” Waverly leaned close to Nicole.

“Yeah,” Nicole grinned. “She’d say, ‘I love you guys so much, and you shouldn’t be afraid to express your love when I’m around.’”

“ _I would NOT!_ ”

“Well, I’d hate to have her think we weren’t following her wishes.”

“It’s so hard doing the right thing sometimes.”

“Sadly, we must.”

“Well…if we must.”

Wynonna pounded as fiercely as she could on the glass, considering she was completely submerged in specially designed fluid whose primary purpose was to bring her back to fighting status quicker. “ _If you two comediennes are quite done_ ,” she began, the echo of the speakers only serving to emphasize her words, “ _can we maybe talk about what happened last night?_ ”

“Alright,” said Waverly. “What?”

“ _That meteor was anything but_ ,” Wynonna recalled. “ _Soon as I got close, I got jumped by a revenant – real nasty one, too. Freak could impersonate pretty much anyone. Had me thinking Doc was back_.”

“And…what made you so sure it wasn’t…” Waverly’s eyes shifted to Peacemaker, lying on a table with the rest of Wynonna’s things.

“ _It wasn’t_ ,” said Wynonna confidently. “ _I can tell the difference between a voice at my waist and a voice twenty feet behind me_.”

There was a slight squeal of feedback, and then Doc’s voice was coming out of the speakers as well. “ _Not to mention the fact that if it had just been me, Wynonna never would have had to spend the night outside to begin with_.”

Nicole leaned close to Waverly and whispered, “That still kinda freaks me out.”

Doc scoffed. “ _If you consider yourself ‘freaked out’, Captain Haught, consider how I feel_.”

“Right, sorry.”

Waverly cleared her throat, calling their attention back to her. “What did happen to the revenant?”

“ _Dragged us back to a cave, strung me up, and would’ve killed me if Henry hadn’t distracted him long enough for me to get free_.” An alarm sounded on the tank, and Wynonna waited as the bacta juice drained from the tank. Once it had, she quickly tore off the cables and exited the chamber. “God, that stuff stinks.”

“What happened to the revenant?” Waverly asked again.

“Fought him, shot him, forgot him. Grabbed Peacemaker on the way out, hiked over to Haught-cakes, and you know the rest.”

Waverly’s breath caught. “So…you killed him?”

“Uh…yeah, Waves. It’s…kinda what I do, remember?”

“I’ll…. I’ll check on you later,” said Waverly, and quickly headed out of the room. Both Nicole and Wynonna stared after her until Wynonna said, “So what’s that about, huh?”

“Not sure,” said Nicole. She bit her lip and when she spoke again her tone was serious. “You could have died.”

“Ah, you like me too much to let that happen.” Wynonna grabbed a nearby towel and began drying herself off. “Try not to stare, okay?”

“I’m serious, Wynonna. Even leaving out your—” Wynonna flashed Nicole a look amidst the drying. “—connection…” Wynonna nodded and resumed wiping herself down. “…you dying would wreck her.”

“She’s strong.”

“She’s also sensitive and smart. She hasn’t said anything, but she definitely feels something more than just friend-love for you. When you were missing last night…”

Wynonna sighed and started throwing her clothes back on. “Look, this isn’t easy for me, y’know? How’s a person even supposed to start that conversation?”

Nicole shrugged. “Directness and in private would be my thought.”

Wynonna snorted and finished buttoning up her jacket. “And that’s why I don’t want you telling her unless you’re about to die and I’m nowhere around.”

“Really?” said Nicole. “That’s a step up from ‘keep your damn mouth shut’.”

“Yeah, well…” Wynonna shrugged and tried to avoid Nicole’s gaze. “You might be annoying, but you’re not fully wrong, and she does seem to like you, so if I’m not around to take care of her…”

“Wynonna…” Wynonna looked up and saw Nicole with an extremely somber look on her face. “Nothing’s gonna happen to you—”

“This from the woman who was just saying I nearly died?”

“—and I would _never_ let anything happen to her, okay? I love her.”

“Ew.” Wynonna tried to pull a face but couldn’t keep the smile off it.

Nicole noticed. “Kinda love you, too.”

“Well…why wouldn’t you? I’m awesome.” Wynonna sighed. “Just don’t get stupid and put yourself in trouble, all right? I’d hate to have to kick a dead person’s ass. Makes me look bad.”

Nicole chuckled and tossed off a salute. “Aye-aye, Captain.”

“You promoted me?” Wynonna gasped.

“Just among us. Everywhere else, it’s still just Commander.”

“Good enough,” said Wynonna. “Let’s go check on our girl, yeah?”

“Sounds good to me,” Nicole paused as Wynonna picked up Peacemaker. “So, no luck with getting him more….independently vocal, then?”

“Nah. The way this thing is put together is so complex, we’d probably need the original plans and design team to even come close to understanding it.”

Nicole nodded as they made their way to control. “And no luck tracking them down?”

Wynonna shrugged. “Few loose rumors that might be worth looking into, but nothing concrete.”

“Well, if we are packing up here—”

“Wait, who’s packing up?”

“Just something I heard Blaine and Waverly talking about, don’t worry….but if it’s true, might be as good a time as any.”

“Yeah…maybe.” The pair of friends entered Control and were nearly bowled over by a panicked technician. “Hey!” shouted Wynonna. “What’s the rush?”

Across the room, Waverly heard Wynonna shouting and came over. “About what time did you shoot that revenant?”

“Waves, what—”

“What time, Wynonna?!” she shouted, her voice giving way to panic.

“Uh…I mean, I was out of it for a little while, but…a few hours after sunset, maybe?”

Nicole glanced between the two. “Waves, what’s going on? Why—”

Waverly ignored both of them and shouted, “Check for transmission ceases between 1900 and 2300 from within a three-mile area of where Commander Earp was recovered!” The techs went to work, and Waverly turned back to Wynonna and Nicole. “Sorry, but we’ve had a theory that those chips Clootie uses are constantly broadcasting back to him. If we’re right…”

Nicole paled. “…then he knows whenever one dies…”

“…and where,” finished Wynonna, looking as though she was about to throw up. “How soon—”

“Found it!” shouted someone on the far end of the room. “Transmission broadcasting on a 6000 brontohertz frequency cut out at 2137 hours last night. Tracing it back…” The room was silent as the tech worked furiously to determine where the signal was sent. “The _Svane_.”

“What time is it now?” asked Nicole.

“About 1000.”

“Over twelve hours,” said Waverly. The whole room was quiet as the implications of what they had just realized hit. “They’re coming.”

‘Waverly,” said Wynonna. “I didn’t know…”

“It’s not your fault,” said Waverly. “You couldn’t have known.”

“So what do we do?” asked Nicole. Everyone in the room stopped working and turned towards Waverly. They knew what was coming, but it still needed to be said first.

Waverly swallowed, and when she spoke, her voice was shaky but firm. “Evacuate.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Officially, the brontohertz and brontobyte don't exist. Unofficially, it's a proposed term to describe a really large number of bytes. Basically, if a gigabyte is one million (10^6) bytes, then a brontobyte would be 10^27 bytes. I'm not fully certain of the math there since we're dealing with theoretical numbers, but that's the gist. At least I avoided any crossovers with real numbers and frequencies, no?
> 
> Remember to comment and subscribe!


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The rebels and Del Rey's forces prepare to face one another amidst the evacuation of Kholod

_One benefit of having a base that consists of people who move around regularly,_ thought Wynonna wryly as she struggled into her flight suit, _is they don’t waste time overthinking_.

Indeed, although the base had only been on alert for an hour, a large number of essential systems and equipment had already been broken down and loaded onto transport ships. Similarly, gun emplacements were being set up outside to drive back any possible ground forces. Nearly every high-ranking official had been evacuated to a shuttle already, and all had been pre-loaded with the current coordinates of the civilian fleet.

For her part, Wynonna was to take the rest of the bandits and hold off Clootie’s forces as long as possible in the AAs. Once the last shuttles had been evacuated, the AAs would rally at a waypoint and be cannibalized as much as possible to keep their equipment stores full while preventing the church from getting at them as the rest of the force departed in their single-pilot spacecraft.

As she ran through the complex, activity was everywhere. In the hangar, crews scrambled to get the fighters ready for the upcoming assault. Off in one corner, Wynonna heard Nicole shouting over something on the _Stetson_ and changed course to investigate.

“Hey, Earp! Wait up!”

Wynonna turned and saw Allena approaching from behind her, a fang-filled grin on her cat-like face. Wynonna returned the grin and said, “What’s up, Allena?”

“It’s taking longer than we thought to load up the heavy ordnance for the fighters. Thoughts?”

“May as well leave them,” said Wynonna. “Worst case, we can use them as an extra oomph for the bonfire later.”

Allena nodded. “Right, that…” She shook her head sadly. “Can’t believe we’re just gonna give up a whole squad of fighters like that.”

“Yeah, but look on the bright side – at least they won’t be around to maybe be used against us later.”

Allena nodded just as a curse sounded from the garage. “You should probably check on her.”

Wynonna nodded and ran a hand over Allena’s head. The young Smildonian pulled slightly away but still smiled at the gesture. “I’ll see you out there, yeah?”

“You bet,” said Allena, heading for the launch bay. Wynonna turned and continued heading for the garage. As she got closer, she heard Nicole shouting, “Okay, try it now!” The sounds of the _Stetson_ ’s hyperdrive initializer began filling the room, followed briefly by an alarm and a small explosion, followed by Nicole shouting, “ _Off! Off! Shut it down!_ ”

Wynonna entered the garage and felt as though she’d won the lottery. In attempting to fix her hyperdrive problem, Nicole had put too much strain on the engine and made it blow up all over her. She was busily patting out flames across her body when she looked up and saw Wynonna grinning at her from the floor. “Don’t,” she cautioned.

“What? I was just thinking how hot you looked.”

Nicole groaned. “Wynonna…” She sighed. “Ten seconds.”

Quickly, Wynonna sprang into action. “I had no idea you were such a flamer. It’s gonna be a hot time tonight. Can I ash you a question? Let me give you a lick of advice. I’m not one to add fuel to a fire, but—”

“And time,” said Nicole. She shook her head at Wynonna, who grinned back at her. Nedley emerged onto the roof and his face fell at the sight of Nicole. “No luck, huh?”

“She almost got there. Maybe it’s a power distribution problem. Recheck the breakers, see if there are any more systems we can do without.”

“Right.” He turned to head back inside and then saw Wynonna on the ground below them. He looked her up and down and said, “You heading out?”

Wynonna shrugged. “They did call for all pilots, so…”

Nedley’s face scrunched up as he tried to keep his feelings in check. “Well,” he said after a moment, his voice thick with emotion, “Fly safe.’ Before Wynonna could reply, he had ducked back inside.

Nicole watched him close the roof hatch, then grabbed a nearby cable and slid down it. She approached Wynonna and said, “You alright?”

“Yeah, great. That bath took years off my life.”

Nicole nodded. “And…Waverly?”

Wynonna sighed. “Look, I’d still rather tell her myself, but…not sure that’s an option at this point, given…” She waved her hand to acknowledge the situation they were now facing. “Just do me one favor, will you, Haught?”

Nicole straightened up. “Anything.”

“Make sure she gets out of here. We both know she’ll want to stay and fight to the very end, and if my instincts are right and Del Rey is on that ship up top…”

“I’ll get her out, Wynonna.”

“Good.”

The two women stood facing each other, each wanting to say or do something more but unsure the proper way to proceed. Overhead, a speaker said, “ _All fighter pilots, report to main hangar for final briefing. Repeat: main hangar for final briefing._ ”

“That’s your cue,” said Nicole.

“Yeah.” Wynonna turned and began heading for the briefing. “Stay safe, Nicole.”

Behind her, Nicole raised her hand in a wave and softly whispered to Wynonna’s back, “You, too.” Then she was gone.

Aboard the _Svane_ , Del Rey pored over the incoming data from the ships scans. The screens were filled with data on defensive measures (light to medium, with a few mass driver cannons and one ion cannon), planetary conditions (cold but sunny; current temperature 29℉), and population density (minimal life signs, and those that were there were all clustered in one concentrated area). There was only one problem that he could see, and it would be dealt with very shortly…

Behind him, the worm from before – an admiral , if his stars were any indicator -- approached with young Brother Gardner close behind. “Lord Del Rey, we have entered the system and will soon begin our attack run, consisting of—”

“They know we’re here,” Del Rey said, continuing to observe the screens, which had begun lighting up a exterior weapons began to draw power from the base’s main generator.

Admiral Worm stammered for a second. “Y-yes, sir. It was not an unexpected circumstance, considering that one of your revenants was discovered—”

Del Rey turned and grabbed the man by the throat. “So this is my fault, then?”

The man struggled ineffectively. “Please…my lord…I only…”

“Only what, hm? Thought you could do better than me? Thought you _were_ better than me?” Del Rey’s grip tightened slightly as the admiral began trying to pull at Del Rey’s fingers. “Ohhh….what’s this?” Del Rey asked, amused. “Is this too much pressure on you? Do you need some relief from it?” The man continued to struggle, and Del Rey loosened his grip just enough to allow the man to catch a breath. “Very well,” he said. “Consider yourself relieved.” Without blinking, Del Rey tightened his fist as much as he could until he heard the bones crack in the old man’s neck. He turned to the other occupant of the room. “Brother Gardner?”

The young man straightened up, pushing his glasses back as he did so. “Yes, my lord?”

“Continue with the operation. Prepare all crawlers for planetfall with full complements and double the patrol pilots in case anyone manages to get off planet. Is that understood….” Del Rey bent over, plucked the bars off the former officers chest, and attached them to the uniform of the young man in front of him. “….Admiral?”

Although his face remained still, a glint appeared in the boy’s eyes and when he spoke his voice had a harder edge to it then before. “Yes, lord.”

“Good. Go.”

Gardner went. Del Rey returned his attention to the computers. Soon he would have those three bitches in his sights. Soon he would take that annoying gun from the Earp girl and beat her to death with it. Soon he would have the princess back in his custody, where she belonged. Soon he would make that pilot pay for shoving him aside like a troublesome child.

_Soon._

Waverly looked at the various pilots surrounding her and wondered where Wynonna was. While she was a hell of a shot and had Waverly’s eternal trust, her sense of timing could be improved.

“Come on, princess,” said one of the pilots. “Are we gonna start this thing?”

Waverly sighed. “Okay,” she said, just as Wynonna came running up from the direction of the garage. Waverly favored her hero with a raised eyebrow. “Nice of you to join us.”

Wynonna shrugged. “Had a hot date,” she said with a wink.

A smile tugged at Waverly’s mouth, but she fought it back and nodded at Wynonna, showing she understood. “Good. Now that we’re all here, our plan is to move the shuttles off planet one at a time, so as not to strain our resources in protecting too many at once.” A few of the pilots grumbled, but none of them actively spoke against this. “Meanwhile, our ground forces will cover the base against any incoming assault teams. It’s important that you fight as long as possible, to give the transports enough time to get away.”

“Where does that leave the service personnel?” asked Wolf, a new girl who had taken over Wynonna’s former seat in Five on the Bandits’ flight roster.

“We’ve been able to modify some fighters enough to fit two people. You all already know if you’ve been tagged with that duty.” Some of the bandits nodded, and Wolf seemed satisfied.

“What about Del Rey’s ship?” said Wynonna. “If it’s up there, I doubt it’s just observing.”

“The ion cannon’s been retasked with extra power,” said Waverly, speaking directly to her. “It should distract the snakes long enough to let the transports and their escorts make the jump to lightspeed, and from there to the fleet.” Wynonna nodded and leaned back, a small smile on her face. “Any other questions?” When no one spoke up, Waverly said forcefully, “To your ships, then. Good luck.”

Most of the pilots headed off to the hangar, but one hung back. Waverly approached Wynonna and asked, “So, how’d I sound? Not too nervous?”

“Nah, you did fine. Real authoritative. Almost made me want to not listen to you.”

“Oh, well if that’s my bar for success, I must be doing better than I thought.”

Wynonna laughed slightly at that. “Well, don’t try too hard. You’re one of the few people I like here.”

“I know,” said Waverly.

“Hey, I’m serious, baby girl – if it was between saving you and everyone else in this place, you’d need to find a new cause to lead.”

Waverly raised an eyebrow. “Oh, so you’d really let everyone else just die?”

“If it meant keeping you safe.”

“Even Nicole?”

Wynonna looked pained for a second. “Fine, I’ll save your stupid smuggler girlfriend too.”

“Good…but first, get out there and buy us some getaway time.”

“Yes, ma’am,” she said, casually tossing off a weak salute as she headed for her ship. “Don’t do anything I would do.”

“What does that leave?” Waverly shouted after her

( _friend? protector? other?_ )

as she strode away. Wynonna shrugged, and Waverly turned and headed in the opposite direction for the control room. There was still a lot to do yet, and things were about to get interesting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special shoutout to two of my buds who appear here: @Rhappy256 returns as Allena, and @lonewolf_writer premieres as Wolf.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Rebels fight for their lives as the church of Clootie brings its might to bear on them

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay! I know I had promised to try and get chapters out quicker, but this took me forever for some reason. Maybe I'm just better with dialogue than with action?

Outside the base, soldiers watched the horizon carefully. The last of the particle cannons had been set up a few minutes earlier, as a backup to the mass drivers that were already there. All rifles were fully charged, and each of them had been given a full complement of grenades and stims to use as needed.

Behind them, a roar sounded, followed by two smaller roars as the first transport and its escort took off. After approximately thirty seconds, the soldiers outside heard a frantic call over the radio. “ _Echo Base! Several shuttles just passed us on a course for you! E.T.A., ten seconds!_ ”

“ _Roger_ ,” said the radio operator. “ _All troops, firing ion cannon_.” The bulbous ion cannon activated and began swiveling as its operator searched for a target in the exosphere. “ _Firing_.” Several blasts shot out of the cannon, and although they couldn’t see the results, they could hear the joy in the operator’s voice when she said, “ _First transport is away. Repeat, first transport is away_.”

Before the troops could celebrate, nearly a dozen explosions went off in the snow surrounding the base. For a brief moment, nothing could be seen, and one soldier wondered aloud if the church was so dumb as to bomb terrain instead of structures. Someone called for binoculars, and someone else ran them over. The soldier who had asked for them scanned the terrain and thought he saw shapes moving in the distance. At first glance they looked like giant bears, but they were too big and moving too slowly.

He threw the binoculars down. “Crawlers!” he shouted. “We have multiple crawlers incoming!”

“That’s our cue,” said Wynonna. She switched to the broad channel and said, “All Bandits, we’re on! Out by twos, and weapons high as soon as we’re clear of the hangar. Go!”

With a will, each of the twelve AA-wings that made up Bandit Squad took off and headed for the battlefield. The ships, though slower than they would have been in space if left untouched, handled beautifully in the atmosphere. As they approached the line of battle, Allena said, “ _Alright, keep your eyes open ladies – those crawlers gotta be close.”_

“ _Got ‘em!_ ” said Eight. “ _Looks like….eight transports, coming in hot._ ”

“Good eye, Sparq,” said Wynonna. “Everyone, pick your targets and say hi.”

On her word, the members of Bandit Squadron began peeling off, each heading towards one of the eight Crawlers – giant armored tanks built to withstand the pressures of space while transporting troops to a planet in massive numbers. As they accelerated to the battle line, Caleb shouted, “ _Remember, they might look tough, but they’re horrible for turning. Avoid direct attacks if possible._ ”

A chorus of affirmatives rang out across the line as Wynonna set her sights on the Crawler furthest along their line. She punched up her targeting reticule and sighted just behind the cab of the giant machine. At the tone, Wynonna let fire with all her lasers….and watched as they bounced harmlessly off.

“Shit!”

“ _Control, come in!_ ” Wynonna’s voice rang out over the loudspeakers as Jeremy and Dolls entered the command center. “ _These guys are heavily armored! Regular blasts aren’t cutting it. You got any ideas?_ ”

“Hang on, Two!” said Waverly. She looked around and saw Jeremy standing there. “Jeremy!” she called. “Do you have anything on Crawlers?”

“We-ell…they can carry up to fifty soldiers each, they have weapons on both their fronts and backs—”

“For destroying them, Jeremy!”

Dolls put a hand on Jeremy’s shoulder. “Their engine is extremely powerful to propel them through outer space and move them across any environment. Disabling that will solve the problem.”

Waverly looked at Dolls. “Solve it how?”

“Explosively.” .

Waverly nodded. “Good.” She paused a second. “Get to Wynonna’s ship and load in. There might not be much time if this all goes sideways.”

“Understood,” said Dolls.

Waverly turned back to the radio. “Bandits, you get that? Attack from the rear and take out the engines!”

Wynonna winced as one of the other ships blew up under fire from a Crawler turret. “Copy!” she shouted. “Be advised, we just lost Bandit…”

“ _Six_ ,” supplied Wolf. “ _This is Five, and that was Six. We’re one down._ ”

“Thanks, Courtney,” radioed Wynonna. “Cover me, I’m heading around behind them.”

“ _Roger_ ,” said Wolf.

Wynonna pulled back on the stick to get some air and laid on the acceleration. Beneath her was now a drop of about five hundred feet. “Coming around…” She saw the engines of the massive Crawler present themselves. Although they weren’t active now due to being planetside, they were still very present and very full of fuel. “Target sighted – firing.” She held the triggers down and was quickly rewarded with the crawler exploding a bout of flame and keeling over on its side. “One down for them!” she shouted triumphantly.

“ _And here!_ ” shouted Seven, a genderless creature they all called simply Jesse, pulling up from their own explosion. “ _Wait…_ ”

“Jesse, there a problem?”

Sounding panicked now, Jesse said, “ _I got soldiers pouring out of mine and heading for the base. Repeat – incoming foot soldiers_.”

“Shit,” said Nicole as the radio broadcast the new development. She ran out of the _Stetson’_ s cockpit just as Nedley came down the stairs. “We’re all set up top, or as much as I can make her.”

She nodded and ran past him. “You hear that announcement?”

He nodded. “What’s the plan?”

“Get her started up and ready. I need to find Waverly!”

Before Nedley could respond, Nicole was sliding down the ramp and running for the control room. As she ran through corridors and slid along the icy floor, small chunks of ice began falling from the ceiling. “Okay, that’s not good.” She rounded one more corner and was in the passageway outside the control room. An explosion shook the base and a bunch of steam began pouring into the corridor as the generator struggled to direct electricity through wires that no longer led anywhere, causing systems to overload. Ducking around the steam, Nicole finally made it to the control room. “Waverly?”

On the other side of the rom, Waverly was hunched over a console next to a lone operator. A terrified-looking Jeremy stood next to her. Without giving them a chance to notice her, Nicole ran up to them and grabbed Waverly. “What are you still doing here?”

“She won’t leave!” said Jeremy. We should have been out of here five minutes ago, but—”

“There’s still fighting going on,” explained Waverly, pulling out of Nicole’s grasp. “Someone needs to—”

Another explosion shook the base, and the lights flickered again as more snowblocks fell into the room. Nicole pulled at Waverly. “Someone’s going to _die_ if they don’t get out of here right now!”

“Don’t shout at me!” Waverly yelled back. “I’m not a child!”

“Then look around you, Waverly! This place is literally falling apart—” Before Nicole could finish talking, the lights failed completely, only to be replaced moments later by the emergency lights. “Was that—”

“The main generator,” said Waverly. She turned to the operator. “Can we still broadcast?”

“For now,” he said.

Waverly looked at Nicole. Nicole returned the look, and Waverly nodded. “Withdraw as many troops to the last transport as we can. Get as many of our people onboard as will fit, and then get out of here.”

Waverly sighed and turned to Nicole. “Okay.”

“Okay,” said Nicole. “Come on – we’re leaving.”

Beside them, Jeremy cleared his throat. “Uh, I know you weren’t talking to me, but—”

“Move it or lose it, Jer!” said Nicole, as she took hold of Waverly and ran.

Wynonna swore at the explosion of light and flame to her left as one of the last two crawlers succeeded in taking out the generator. She fired her guns anyway, already knowing it was too late, and took out the attacker, diving low and fast. The crawler blew its rear, and for a moment Wynonna felt a small surge of pride.

Seconds later, something struck her fighter and the cockpit was filling with smoke. “ _Wynonna!_ ” she heard Caleb calling out. “ _Those troops got rockets! Are you alright?”_

“One of them must have clipped me!” Wynonna shot back. “I’m heading down. This might hurt…” Grunting, she grabbed the control stick and pulled back as hard as she could, trying to turn the crash into a rough landing. Ahead of her, Serpenten troopers were pouring out of the downed crawler, and some already had their guns trained on her.

“Okay, then…” Smiling, she pressed the trigger down and aimed straight for the soldiers. Although most of them scattered, a few stood their ground, perhaps underestimating her bravado…or overestimating her sanity. In either case, her lasers made short work of them, just as—

The impact of the AA into the ground went all through Wynonna’s body, knocking her back into the seat at about 80 miles per hour. If it weren’t for the padding of the flight suit, she almost certainly would have been jelly. The small fighter kept rolling end over end, and Wynonna thought for sure she was going to be reunited with the small breakfast she had managed to eat very soon. After six or seven flips, the fighter stopped moving, thankfully right-side up and with its canopy still attached and more or less intact.

Shaking her head, Wynonna quickly unbuckled the straps holding her in place and grabbed all her equipment – a supplies bag with some emergency supplies, a couple grenades she had ‘borrowed’ from Nicole, and Peacemaker. She cracked the canopy open, tossed the bag in the snow, and slid out of the fighter. Setting her radio for the other pilots, she said, “This is Two. I’m down, but alive. Status?”

“ _Hey, girl_ ,” said Allena. “ _They ordered a full evac. We’re mopping up out here, but a lot of snakes already made it into base. What do you wanna do?_ ”

Wynonna considered her options. “I’m heading for the fighters. If we’re evacing, that’s probably the place to be. Do what you gotta, and we’ll catch up later.”

“ _Roger_.”

As the ground shook around them, Nicole pulled Waverly through the darkened corridors. The lights were out nearly everywhere, and under other circumstances, the journey would have taken even longer than it already had.

“How long until the transport leaves?” Nicole whispered.

“They’re ready to go now,” said Jeremy. “They’re just waiting on any non-pilot stragglers…and you, of course,” he finished, looking at Waverly.

“Appreciated, but I’m getting slightly tired of people risking their lives for me,” said Waverly.

“Then stop being so inspiring,” said Nicole. “Jeremy, it’s down here, right?”

“Uh…” Jeremy withdrew for a second to check his network of maps. “Yeah. Yeah, just follow…oh.”

“What is…” Nicole began, then stopped. The corridor had completely caved in. A pile full of metal supports, equipment, and ice had completely cut off the passageway. _Right_. She picked up her radio and changed frequencies on it. “Transport, this is Haught.”

“ _Go, Haught_.”

“We’re cut off from you guys by a cave-in. I’ll take the princess out on the _Stetson_. You all launch when ready – we’ll meet you when we can.”

“ _Copy. Good luck._ ”

Nicole put the radio down and turned towards the young woman beside her. “You alright?”

Waverly nodded. “So which way to your ship?”

“Back this way. Come on.” Nicole ran forward, with Waverly close behind and Jeremy following after, screaming for them to slow down. There was a crack above them, and Waverly screamed just in time for Nicole to see another ice block falling towards them. Pressing herself against Waverly, Nicole waited until the cracking sounds had stopped before moving. “Okay…I think it’s safe – well, safer.”

Waverly chuckled. “This remind you of anything?”

Nicole looked at her. “What?”

“The compactor?”

It took a minute for Nicole to remember what she was talking about. “Well…at least this time it’s an actual enemy I’m saving you from, instead of…”

“Yeah. Still, at least she’s out there.”

Nicole smiled down at her, trying to resist the urge to cover her in kisses. “We should get—”

“—going, right.” Waverly pushed off the wall just as Jeremy came running through. “Hi guys, can’t stop, company’s coming.”

“What?” Nicole glanced behind them and saw troopers coming down the corridor. “Shit!” She pulled her blaster and fired off two quick shots at the first one she saw. “Run! The ship’s just ahead!”

The corridor was already filling up with more troopers. Nicole reached into her bag and found a lone grenade inside. “Damn it, Wynonna…” She pulled it out, released the pin, and threw it towards the invaders. Without waiting for confirmation, Nicole ran and felt rather than heard the explosion as it tore through troopers and walls alike. She sprinted down the last few sections of corridor and finally saw the _Stetson_ waiting in front of her, hovering a few feet off the ground and with Waverly at the bottom, beckoning furiously for her.

Without slowing down, Nicole aimed for the ramp and jumped, just catching her hands on the edge of it. Waverly gasped but quickly bent down to help pull her in. She turned to Jeremy and said, “Go tell Nedley to move!” Jeremy nodded and headed upstairs for the cockpit as Waverly continued to pull Nicole up and the ground rocketed past them below. With one final push, Nicole swung her leg over the edge and pulled herself inside. The two women ran for the top of the ramp, with Waverly hitting the close button as she passed it.

As the ramp closed and the cargo bay around them repressurized, the pair leaned against each other, catching their breath. As breathing became easier again, Waverly looked up at Nicole and said, “Are we safe now?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Was able to put a fair few guest appearances in here. The full list is...
> 
> @Rhappy256 - Allena Zekadan/Bandit One  
> @ethanistrans - Caleb Barrett/Bandit Three  
> @LoneWolf_writer - Courtney Wolf/Bandit Five  
> @cre8iv_sparq - April Sparq/Bandit Eight
> 
> Head to Twitter and give them all some follows!


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Wynonna and her friends make their escape from Kholod, an old enemy appears to track them down....

Wynonna crested the hill hiding the last takeoff area just in time to see the _Stetson_ flying past. For a moment she wondered if Nicole had managed to evacuate Waverly safely, then shook her head. Considering how the pilot felt about her sister, the odds of her leaving _without_ Waverly were roughly equal to the odds of Wynonna tossing Peacemaker away and settling down to a quiet life of servitude in a marriage with Del Rey. No, more likely they were doing just fine and were heading for the rear bunk while Nedley flew the ship in order to give Nicole and Waverly time to—

“Ahh! Bad brain!” Wynonna slapped herself a couple times in order to get rid of the image and slowly slid-jogged down the hill towards her waiting fighter. The area that had been cleared was about as big as the spit of land that had once held the Homestead back on Purgatory, only instead of sand and farming equipment, this field held nearly a dozen X-Wing fighters and one transport that was just now leaving. The remaining members of Bandit Squad were slowly making their way over and trading their land vehicles for more spaceworthy craft.

As Wynonna reached the launch area, one of the newer members of Bandit Squad, Kellan, looked over from where they were climbing into their own fighter. The newest and youngest Bandit smiled and called over, “Alright, Earp? Heard you had a bit of a rough landing.”

“Nothing I can’t crawl away from,” she shouted back. “We good?”

“Yeah, it looks like we’re the last ones out of here, apart from the transport and whatever grunts are trying to get a seat on it.”

Wynonna nodded. “The other fighters?”

“Set to blow just as we planned.” Kellan raised a hand and climbed into their cockpit. “See you at the rendezvous!”

Wynonna raised her own hand in farewell and trudged over to her own fighter. There were still a few scorch marks on the hull from her near-death escape at Lihevhat, but she had stubbornly refused to have them repainted, figuring that the scars added character to the ship and made it stand out among the rest. She climbed the entry ladder to the open cockpit and was happy to see Dolls was already in his accustomed spot behind the cockpit and jacked in to the fighter’s systems. “You okay back there, Dolls?” she asked jovially.

 **For the moment** , said the droid, speaking through the ship with his words appearing on the ship’s system screen. **Although considering what happened the last time we went flying, I am slightly worried that that condition could change.**

“Hey, that was the explosion that did that, not me….and what are you complaining about anyway? You look better than you have at any point since I’ve met you.”

**You met me six months ago…and less than a week before what skin I had was ‘removed’.**

“Bitch, bitch…” Wynonna allowed a smile to rise to her lips as she buckled into the fighter – her second of the day – and logged into it, starting the engines and preparing all systems for takeoff. “Doc, you in?”

“ _Like Flynn, darlin’_ ” said the electronically generated voice of Doc Holliday over the radio. “ _We blowing this town?_ ”

“Looks like.” The rockets fired, pushing the fighter into the sky as navigation data began spilling across the screen. “Dolls, you still got the rendezvous coordinates?”

**All programmed and ready whenever you are.**

“Nice. Then let’s get—”

“ _What about the gun?_ ” said Doc. “ _We still working on tracking down its makers?_ ”

“Ye-ah…why?”

“ _Well, it seems that now might be a better time than most to run down at least a couple locations from that list you mentioned to Captain Haught_.”

Wynonna bit her lip, thinking. She was anxious to reunite with the others, but at the same time, they did need as much information as they could get on Peacemaker, and if they had time…

“Dolls, was there a set time for ships to be at the rendezvous?”

**No…why? What are you thinking?**

“I’m thinking Doc’s right – if we got the chance, may as well see what we can find out.”

If her companions were fully human, Wynonna would swear that Doc suddenly had an air of satisfaction about him equal to the pout that was behind Dolls’ next words. **Nobody else even knows about the list, much less what planets you have on it. What if something happens?**

“What could happen? We’re running down names, not going into battle. In fact, we are quite clearly heading in the opposite direction _of_ battle.”

The computer made a noise which Wynonna equated to Dolls sighing in defeat. **Do you at least have a solid destination in mind?**

She did.

Nicole ran into the cockpit and took up her position with barely a glance at Nedley. One look out the window told her the situation – multiple cruisers were waiting above the planet, and even without the radar Nicole could see BEE fighters closing in on their position.

“Hang on!” she shouted, and pushed the _Stetson_ into a deep dive, now heading at a ninety-degree angle from their previous course. One of the fighters took a few potshots at them, but it was nothing the shields couldn’t handle for a few seconds. She tossed the stick to Nedley and said, “Hang on, I’ll punch in the coordinates for Holorsoon.”

“Holorsoon?” Waverly shouted. “That’s not where the fleet is!”

“I know, I know, but if we head straight to them from here, those ships could track us way too easily. If we detour, we at least have a shot at keeping them clear.” She finished typing in the coordinates. “Hang on, this is gonna be a little bumpier than usual—”

“It’s not already?” growled Nedley.

“Just hang on!” she shouted back. “Jumping in—”

“Uh, hey, Nicole?” Jeremy interrupted. “Can I—”

“Not now, Jeremy!” she shouted at the cyborg. His face fell, but first things first. “Three, two…

Nicole threw the backup activation switch from her position near the nav computer. The four passengers felt the familiar rush of inertia in their bodies as the ship prepared to jump to lightspeed…and then nothing. The engine reverted back to normal sublight and except for some dizziness, they were in the exact same position they had been in.

“What the hell?” said Nedley. “You put in coordinates, right?”

“Yeah!” Nicole slid back into her set and immediately started checking and rechecking systems. “Did you close everything up before we left?”

“Of course!”

“Including—”

“Yes, everything!”

“Uh, children?” said Waverly. “They’re getting closer.”

“Waves, double check the nav computer behind you! Those are the right coordinates, right?”

Waverly glanced behind her at the computer. “They’re for the system you want to take us to, but…”

“Okay, trying again. Three, two…” Her and Nedley both pulled the switch on the main console, only now the hyperdrive wasn’t even trying to activate. “Shit!”

“Can I speak now?” said Jeremy. “This could really help!”

“What is it, Jeremy?” Nicole shouted. “We kinda have a situation here.”

“I was talking to the ship, and the amount of power needed for the patch you made was causing too much stress! It burned out the speed convertor!”

Nicole slowly turned to look at him. “…and when did you realize this?”

“Uh…” Jeremy stammered. “As we were leaving?”

Nicole screamed through gritted teeth and slammed a fist on the console. She felt a hand on her shoulder and heard Waverly say, “Okay, just stay calm, baby. This ship is basically you, right? You can figure something out.”

Without responding, Nicole jumped out of her seat and was heading for the systems center just above them. The door at the top of the ladder opened automatically and she was welcomed by an immense cloud of acidic smoke. Coughing, she backed up a few feet until the hatch closed. “Triggering vent in systems,” she declared. “Hang on.” She pushed a nearby button on the wall and waited as all the air was sucked out of the room and exposed to space. Nicole gave the room another five seconds to refill with breathable air, opened the door again, and looked around. One glance told her that repairs would take at least a full day of work. Half of the towers were covered in ash, and one of them – the one that was in charge of the convertor, no doubt – appeared to have a giant hole in its side.

Nicole slid back down the ladder and sat down again. “Too much damage to worry about now,” she said. “What's the situation?”

“Still being chased,” said Nedley, “but at least we left the cruisers behind.”

“Where are we?” said Waverly. “What’s our coordinates?”

“Looks like….eastern edge.” said Nicole. “Why?”

Waverly smiled. “The asteroids.”

Nicole’s eyebrows shot up in admiration. “I owe you _so_ many apologies and late nights when we’re done here.”

“You do,” agreed Waverly with a smile as Nicole pulled to the right. Ahead of them lay the biggest feature of the Kholod system, an asteroid field that took up half of the available space in the system. No one knew quite how so many floating rocks had managed to find their way out here, but that was the least of their concerns now. Nicole increased the sublights and entered the field, carefully working her way around the bigger rocks while avoiding as many smaller ones as she could.

“They’re pulling back,” said Nedley, and Nicole breathed a sigh of relief. Bad enough having to maneuver around space debris, but with fighters on top of that…

Nicole glanced behind her at Waverly and saw the princess was biting her lip, usually a giveaway of her nerves slowly getting the better of her. “Waves,” she said. Waverly said nothing, but her attention shifted to Nicole. “It’s not like…other places,” she said, not wanting to bring up Alderaan directly if she could avoid it. “These are just rocks, and we’re gonna figure a way through them and get out of here.”

Waverly nodded, but her eyes seemed to believe Nicole a little less than the rest of her body. For a moment, all was silent, and then Jeremy said, “So what are we looking for?”

“Trying to find a place to fix this. Sometimes the bigger ones are almost mini-planetoids, with their own gravity and caves. Find one like that, hide out for a little bit, and then, hopefully…”

“Okay,” said Jeremy. He focused his attention outside and said, “Turn right twelve degrees and climb thirty.”

“What?”

“I found one.” He tapped his head. “Part-computer, remember?”

Not wanting to fight it, Nicole said, “Setting course…” Within a few minutes, they were approaching an asteroid big enough to build a small settlement on. Nicole reduced their speed and approached it gently, keeping an eye out for any stray rocks that might cross their path on approach.

“Look,” said Waverly.

“I see it,” said Nicole. She headed for the impact crater on the surface and the small opening inside it. As they flew into the cavern, the light from the system primary gradually faded, leaving only the exterior lights of the _Stetson_ to see them through the cavern. After a few hundred meters, the passageway evened out with enough space on either side to allow for a landing that Nicole performed without delay…just in time for the drive itself to give out.

Nicole looked around at her companions. She saw the worry she was feeling reflected in three pairs of eyes. Sighing, she put the ship in standby mode and said, “Everyone grab a light and a toolset. We might be here for a while…”

Del Rey stood in the empty hangar where the last of the rebels – that damnable pilot Haught, the former sheriff, and the too-long-uncaptured princess – had made their escape. He could feel where they had run in panic, could sense the location where their ship had been, could even smell the terror that had been emanating from their pores….but that only took him to the edge of the hanger. Beyond that…

Del Rey growled and yanked his communicator off his belt. “ _Svane_.”

Within seconds, the radio operator on his ship had patched him back over to the current commanding officer, Admiral Gardner. “ _Yes, my lord?_ ” said the young man, the steel and contempt normally only obtained after years of service already present in his voice.

“A freighter left the planet within the past hour,” Del Rey said.

There was a brief pause, and then Gardner came back with. “Officially, that freighter has no registered name or identification. Unofficially, the _Stetson_ has been most commonly seen by various illegals under the command of Nicole Haught, a former cadet in the pilot program who left the service after breaking out a former sheriff from the world of Purgatory.” Del Rey inwardly winced at the mention of that planet coming up again. Unaware, Gardner went on: “Prior to six months ago, the two were most frequently seen doing runs for Bunny Loblaw, also a resident—”

“Fine, fine, fine,” said Del Rey, before he had to hear the name that at this point seemed to be actively seeking him out to mock him again. “What was their trajectory?”

“Our fighters witnessed them entering an asteroid field on the far edge of the system. We are en route now.”

Snow crunched behind him, and he heard a familiar voice laugh at that. He ignored the voice’s owner for the moment and said, “Continue your course. We’ll be back on board shortly. And Admiral…kill the ship if you must, but make sure its passengers still live. That is an _order_.” He put the communicator away.

The person behind him laughed again, and he turned to see Rosita Bustillos grinning at him and shaking her head. “That’s never gonna work, Robert.”

“A cruiser against a poorly armed freighter? I think you forget what my last weapon did to a whole planet.”

“I think _you_ forget what one determined bitch in a fighter a fraction the size of that weapon did to it. Need me to remind you?”

Del Rey snarled and turned his head. “No…”

“Oh, relax, baby.” Rosita approached him from behind and ran her fingers across his neck and down his chest. “It’ll be fine. You just need to send the right person in. Someone with the right ship who knows Haught well enough—”

Del Rey spun around and grabbed her wrist. “No.”

“No?” said Rosita angrily. She pulled her arm out of his hand with ease. “Do you _want_ those bitches to get away? After everything they’ve—”

“They won’t get away. They’re trapped in an asteroid field with no escape and no lightspeed engine.”

“How do you know that?” Rosita said with a pout.

“If they could’ve jumped to lightspeed, they wouldn’t have needed to be chased into an asteroid field. Most likely, they’re hiding in there, trying to repair their ship.”

“All the more reason to send me in!”

“No,” he said again.

“But….don’t you want them to suffer for everything? The princess, and Haught, and…and…”

“They will, my love,” crooned Del Rey, moving close to her and bringing her face close to his. “But if I have to risk losing you…”

“I’m not yours to lose,” argued Rosita, although Del Rey knew he had already won the fight.

“I know,” he told her.

Rosita huffed, but Del Rey felt the tension leave her shoulders as she relaxed. “Fine. I’ll let the little ginger go for now….although I _will_ need to get her to Bunny eventually. You do realize that, right?”

“Of course. Anything for my angel of death.”

Rosita quirked an eyebrow. “Anything?” she grinned, and dropped her weapons on the ground as she slowly came toward him.

Del Rey returned her grin with one of his own as he took her in his hands. “Absolutely anything.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After examining the original script of The Empire Strikes Back, I realized I'd need to move a few scenes around to make my story flow better. Nothing drastic, but purist fans of Empire may have caught on. It's nothing that really affects the story, but all the same...hence, the part where Vader/Bobo wants the freighter is moved forward a scene.
> 
> Continuing my trend of naming guest star friends, @dammitkellan pops over from Twtter to bid Wynonna adieu. Thanks, Kellan!
> 
> Next up -- Wynonna makes a new friend!


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wynonna begins searching for information on Peacemaker and its origins; as the crew hides from the church, the stress of recent events begins hitting Waverly

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> #EarpSoon

Exiting lightspeed with a sudden jolt, Wynonna looked at the planet in front of her. The world of Marakej was described in most charts as “a perfect pre-evolution paradise”. There was an an abundance of animals on the surface, but absolutely no signs of advanced civilization. In Wynonna’s eyes, that made it either the perfect place to hide…or the perfect dead end.

Wynonna sighed and steered her ship towards the planet. Landings were hard enough in giant freighters; in tiny single-occupant spacecraft, it was bound to be worse. Her plan was to run the ship over the surface and see if anything significant popped up on the radar. If it did, she’d land and check it out. If not, she’d chalk this up in the loss column and move on.

“Okay, gang; hold on tight,” she said. “We’re going in.”

Keeping the thrusters at half, Wynonna gently angled the ship upward, trying to present as much of the fighter’s belly to the atmosphere as possible. Although the shields would take the majority of the heat and pressure, enough of it would still leak into the thin fighter to cause her to sweat slightly.

As soon as they hit the outer atmosphere, the ship began to juke back and forth violently. Wynonna gritted her teeth and held on tight. _Just another trip to another planet. You’ve been on enough of them by now, you know the drill._ The ship grew warm to the touch, and if it weren’t for the many layers of her flight suit, her skin would be cooking too. “Come on, come on…” she muttered, impatient to get through the worst of it.

Almost as if it’d been waiting for her order, the ship stopped shaking as it entered the planet’s airspace proper. The whole area was covered in thick gray clouds, reminding Wynonna of stumbling home drunk after a particularly nasty evening. “Dolls, active radar. Keep an eye out for…anything.” Instantly, the screen in front of her filled with a vague outline of what was around the ship. It looked like—

“Hell!” said Wynonna. She grabbed the stick and pulled up as fast as she could. A scraping sound on the lower hull gave voice to the tree she had nearly flown into. Eyes forward, Wynonna looked for a clear landing spot, a break in the tree cover, lights indicating habitation, _anything_.

The hull scraped again, and Wynonna felt herself be thrust back in her chair. The fighter started to climb again, and Wynonna pushed back down on the stick, bringing it lower. A proximity alarm began beeping just as Wynonna saw the large tree ahead of her, larger than she’d ever imagined possible. She pulled hard to the side and heard a large crash from underneath as they lost something. _No time to worry about that now_ , she thought. “Dolls! Tell me you got something!”

**There’s an open patch five hundred meters ahead, but—**

“Good enough. Heading in.” She cut speed to one-fourth and saw the patch Dolls was talking about. It seemed to be mostly swampwater, but there was a tiny spit of land on the other side that would work for a landing pad. “Deploying landing gear,” she said. She pulled the switch, but another alarm sounded. “Dolls? What’s going on?”

**That last scrape tore up the hull! The landing gear can’t deploy!**

“Ohhh…fuck.” Thinking quickly, Wynonna cut all power to the engines. Moving forward on momentum alone, the fighter started drifting towards the water. “Dolls, gimme a two-second burst of power to the rockets!” Dolls complied, and the shoreline drifted ever closer. A countdown clock appeared on the screen, starting at three….two…one…

A torrent of water splashed up around the ship as it struck the swamp. The ship continued forward and Wynonna pulled up on the stick slightly. The trees lining the edge of the shore drew close and Wynonna gritted her teeth for the inevitable crash, pulled back on the stick, and closed her eyes.

Nothing happened.

After nothing continued to happen for a few seconds, Wynonna opened her eyes. They had come to a stop after all and had managed to land the ship relatively upright. Wynonna laughed with relief, opened the canopy…and stopped laughing. While they had stopped out of the water, the ship was propped at a 45° angle against the thick trees. It wasn’t quite as bad as crashing into them, but it would certainly make leaving this place a little more interesting

Something splashed in the water behind her, and Wynonna turned quickly, her gun aiming at whatever it was. After a few seconds, Dolls broke the surface of the water and glared at her. Wynonna shrugged at him and said, “Hey, we made it, didn’t we?”

The droid continued to stare at her and finally said, “You need a landing simulator.”

“Well, you need swimming lessons.” Dolls marched forward out of the water, and if he had a sense of humor, Wynonna would have been sure he was mocking her. “Show-off…” she muttered. “Come on. Let’s get camp set up.”

Waverly shivered in the cockpit of the _Stetson_ as Nicole and Nedley turned everything off.

“Lights?” said Nicole.

“Check,” replied Nedley.

“Interior systems?”

“Check.”

Beside her, Jeremy woke up. “Uh, interior systems? What….what does that mean?”

Nicole consulted the list she had of everything that might unnecessarily draw power. “Anything that requires a charge to run. Kitchen equipment, video, network, a/c….it all has to sit if we’re gonna put out as small a profile as possible.”

“Okay….does, uh….does that include me, too?”

“Yes,” said Nedley, impatience lending his voice an edge.

“No!” Nicole replied quickly. “No, Jeremy, you’re not getting shut down. We need you active to…”

Waverly caught on. “…to figure out what exactly is wrong with the hyperdrive and how to fix it properly.” Nicole flashed her a grateful smile.

“Oh!” said Jeremy happily. “Yeah, that makes sense.” He stopped, then frowned. “Wait, I thought you already—”

“Come on, tin man,” said Nedley, his check having finished. “Let’s get you hooked into the ship so we can get moving again.”

“Oh, but….” Nedley grabbed Jeremy by the collar and started escorting him upstairs. “Okay…”

Nicole let out a chuckle at the pair. “You know, I think Jeremy is really starting to grow on him.” Waverly smiled but didn’t respond, her mind preoccupied. “Waves?”

Waverly sighed. “Yeah?”

Nicole knelt in front of her and took her by the hand. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s just…” Waverly sighed in frustration. “Everything’s gone wrong.”

“Well…yeah, but it’ll be fine. We’ll get the ship running, find somewhere to—”

“No, not just that!” said Waverly, her voice rising. “You’re leaving.”

Nicole shook her head. “No. I mean, yes, but I’m coming back after—”

“You’re still leaving. You’re leaving, and Wynonna’s missing – _again_ – and the fleet’s scattered, and would it be so difficult for us to remain in one system for _once?_ ” Waverly pounded her fists in frustration and got up, heading down the hall to the kitchen. She leaned against the counter, illuminated only by emergency lights, and tried to not let the tears she was feeling fall.

Footsteps sounded on the floor behind her and she felt Nicole wrap her arms around her. “I didn’t know you felt this way.”

Waverly scoffed. “No one can. I’m ‘the princess’. I’m supposed to be the rock they all look to.”

“Why?”

Waverly turned around. “What?”

“Why do they have to look to you? You’ve lost… _more_ than the rest of them in this war. I think they’d understand you needing some space now and then.”

“I can’t.”

“Waverly…”

“I can’t think about it, Nicole. If I do, then…” Waverly looked up to Nicole, willing her to understand.

Nicole nodded and held her close. “It’s okay, babe,” she said. “Whatever you need, I’m here.”

Waverly sniffled. “Promise?”

“Promise.”

“Alright, pull it!”

Dolls lifted the rear of the fighter up and began heading towards Wynonna. The pair had managed to construct a crude ramp out of some rocks and fallen trees, and were currently in the process of dragging the ship to a position that might conceivably function for launching it back into space again when the time came.

Well…Dolls had constructed. Wynonna was… _supervising_. The droid pulled the ship again and suddenly it was horizontal once more, the last move clearing it from the trees that had been holding it upright with a crash. Wynonna winced at the sound but wasn’t too worried – if these things could take a few laser blasts and survive space, a ten- to fifteen-foot drop wouldn’t hurt them.

Wynonna looked around at the forest surrounding them as Dolls dragged the ship the last few feet to shore. It had been six hours since they’d landed, and while the air was breathable and the temperature bearable, the lack of civilization made the idea of actually living on this planet laughable. She pulled out a datapad and went over the list she’d managed to assemble of names and faces Doc could remember that had worked on Peacemaker. Most of the names were crossed off, her research having written them off as literal dead ends. The only one left was a man with no picture whose name was listed as simply, “J. Carlos/Carlo”.

“Can’t even get a definite name, much less a face,” she muttered. Dolls looked up at her from the shore, the ship now fully back on land. “What?”

“Why are we here?” he rumbled.

“Private mission,” she said. “Classified.”

“No.”

“What, you get to have a secret mission and I don’t? Lame.” Wynonna sighed and walked toward the ship and Dolls. “We’re trying to track down info on Peacemaker – how it works, why it works, if there’s a way to get Doc out of it. Supposedly, _somewhere_ on this rock someone who worked on it is hiding out.” She picked up a nearby rock and chucked it into the lake as Dolls’ gaze shifted to the left. She nodded and said, “I don’t know, Dolls…this whole thing is stupid, probably, and this place is _definitely_ giving off major creep vibes…” She turned and fired Peacemaker into the trees and heard a surprised yell from nearby. “Or maybe that’s just the uninvited guest spying on us.”

A hearty laugh sounded from the forest near where Wynonna’s shot had landed. “Alright, point made, young lady. Hold your horses.” There was some rustling, and soon a man had emerged from the forest and onto the shore. He looked about sixty or seventy years old, but her experiences with Doc had taught her that it was possible to be a lot older than that, especially where the church was concerned. He was dressed simply enough and carried himself easily, as though he had all the time in the world. He walked up to them with a confident smile and nodded. “Howdy.”

Wynonna blinked, unsure what to make of him. “Why were you spying on us?”

“Spying? Is that what you call it when you check on a disturbance in your front yard?”

“You live here?”

“More or less,” he said. “You folks get lost?”

“No…” said Wynonna. “We’re…we’re looking for someone.”

The man gestured to himself. “Well, then…mission accomplished.”

Wynonna rolled her eyes. “Someone _specific_. Guy who may have worked for the church a while back. Probably helped with the making of this?” Wynonna held up Peacemaker.

The stranger looked the gun over and whistled. “Now that…that sure is a beautiful gun. A true work of art, deadly as it may be.”

“Thanks, but it’s taken. So—”

“Juan Carlo…that’s who you’re looking for, right?”

Wynonna’s ears perked up. “Yeah! Is he here?”

The old man sighed, then looked thoughtful. “Have you eaten? You look like you landed in a hurry, probably took off fresh from a fight…”

 _Christ, now what?_ “It’s been a busy day.”

“Figured as much. Come on.” The man headed off into the woods. “I’ve got a shelter set up not too far from here. We’ll get a bite to eat, and then you can tell me why you need to speak to Juan Carlo.”

Wynonna hesitated, not wanting to follow a potentially crazy person into the woods but not wanting to let him get away, either. “Dolls,” she said finally. “Stay and watch things here, would you?”

“You are following him?”

“No choice.”

“Bad idea,” said Dolls, his voice sounding worried.

“Don’t I know it,” she said. She clapped the droid on the shoulder once and took off, hoping she wouldn’t regret this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> #EarpNow


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Repairs and connections are made onboard the Stetson; Del Rey speaks to his master; Wynonna makes a discovery

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things get a little sexy in this chapter. Nothing too graphic, but all the same I felt I should issue a warning beforehand, just in case.

“So?” said Nicole.

Jeremy looked up at her innocently. “What?”

“So help me, I am not getting into a comedy skit with you right now, Jeremy. What’s the power situation?”

“Well, let me put it to you this way…” said Jeremy, getting up from his position on the floor of the cockpit. “Have you ever opened a refrigerator?”

“Ye-ahhh…”

“You know that little light bulb that goes on when you open it, but never stays on when it’s shut?”

Nicole nodded. “We’re the light bulb.”

“No. We can power the light bulb, but only for a short while….and it’s a really weak bulb, too.”

“Wonderful….” said Nicole. “What’s that mean for travel?”

“Basically, we’re good for two, maybe three systems….about an hour’s worth of travel time. Wherever we go next, it needs to be close and peaceful, because any extra strain will drain it that much quicker.”

“You mean….like shields?”

“Shields, guns, active tracking…we should be okay with interior systems, though.”

“So we’ll be able to see each other as we starve.”

“Uhh…yeah.”

Nicole shook her head. “Okay, if it’s what we got, it’s what we got. Set it up.”

Jeremy nodded and went back to the computer. Nicole started to walk away, then turned back. “Hey, Jeremy?”

Jeremy poked his head out of the cockpit. “Yeah?”

“You…..you know none of that was directed at you, right?”

“Hey, yeah, no, I get it. You’re worried about getting stuck here, or your ship being broken beyond repair—”

“Yeah, but even still—”

“Nicole, it’s fine.” Jeremy got up and ambled over to her. “Really. I’d rather be here with you guys than anywhere else anyway.”

“Why?” said Nicole. “I mean, I know you and Waverly are friends and that she pretty much saved your—”

“No, not pretty much; she did.” Jeremy looked embarrassed for a second, then plunged ahead. “After….after my accident, and the surgery, everyone I knew started treating me as if I was different, like I was less than I was before. When I tried to show them I wasn’t, they got angry and told me to get out. Waverly was the only one who still saw me as me, and then when Wynonna and you guys showed up, you just….treated me like a regular guy. That was….nice.”

Nicole smiled briefly. “As I recall, Wynonna made more than a few jokes about you.”

“Yeah, but she still kept me around. I’d rather be kept around and teased by someone nice whom I barely know then tossed out and forgotten by my family.”

Nicole didn’t know what to say to the cyborg’s confession. After a second that felt like an eternity, she pulled him into a hug and said, “Well, now you’re our family.” She released Jeremy and made for the stairs before either of them could ruin the moment. Before she got there, though, she ran into Nedley heading the opposite direction.

“Well?” she said.

Nedley sighed. “Replaced all the burned-out wires and found a spare initializer behind some crates in back. Probably been rolling around in there since before we found each other, so…don’t expect too much out of it.”

“If it lights up just once, that’ll be enough.”

“Meaning?”

“Well…according to Jeremy, we’d have enough power once he’s done to get to any system that’s less than an hour away, and that’s assuming we don’t put any extra strain on the generator.”

Nedley frowned. “Pretty risky.”

“Yeah, but so’s just sitting here.”

“True enough. At any rate, Waverly is up there patching things up.”

Nicole blinked. “Really?”

“Yeah.” A laugh escaped Nedley’s mouth. “Can’t imagine where a nice girl like her got familiar with an acetylene blowtorch.”

Nicole had a few ideas on that score. “Alright. Good job, Nedley.” She ascended the stairs and followed the hall lights to the server room, where she could hear the steady whistle of their welder at work. The torch cut out as she got close, and Nicole knocked gently on the doorframe. “Permission to enter?”

Waverly turned, and Nicole nearly laughed at the sight of her. The once-immaculate princess was covered in grease and dirt, and her hair seemed to be smoking slightly. She was a far cry from the flawless and untouchable figure that Nicole had grown so used to. “Wow, Waves…have you seen yourself?”

Waverly grimaced. “How bad is it?”

“Nothing that won’t wash off after a shower…or ten.” Waverly groaned and tried to hide behind one of the towers, but Nicole quickly pulled her back. “So how’s it going in here?”

“Well, I managed to smooth out all the rough shapes and threw a patch over that hole. Good news – it was one of the decoys, so everything should still start up okay. Otherwise, it was mostly cleaning up the fire damage.”

Nicole nodded. “And how’s it going…” She tapped Waverly’s head. “…in here?”

Waverly quieted. “Being busy helps,” she said softly.

Nicole stepped closer. “It usually does. Being distracted.”

“You help, too,” said Waverly. “ _And_ you’re distracting.”

“I could leave.”

“I thought you said you wouldn’t,” said Waverly, leaning forward slightly.

“Never…” Nicole pressed forward and soon her lips were meeting Waverly’s head on, drinking in their sweet flavor of…Nicole wasn’t even sure, just that it reminded her of childhood and freedom and peace. A pair of hands began pawing at Nicole’s jacket, and Nicole was only too happy to help get it off. She turned Waverly around and was sliding her clothes off as quick as she could while covering her with more kisses across her neck and face and shoulders. Once that was done, Waverly did the same, lifting Nicole’s shirt over her head and pressing her face and lips down Nicole’s chest, nuzzling and suckling on first her left breast, then her right. She brought her face up to Nicole’s and teased the spot just under Nicole’s chin, and Nicole nearly groaned. Waverly climbed up Nicole like a ladder and pressed their faces together as Nicole fell back against one of the many towers in the room.

She pulled back. “Promise me,” she said. “Promise you’ll never leave, and that you’ll always come for me.”

Nicole embraced the young princess and kissed her forehead. “Always.”

“Always,” said Waverly back, making the same promise. She smiled adoringly at the captain, and before long the two were too busy to worry about anything but each other.

As they lay entwined in each other’s arms, the communicator began beeping.

Del Rey growled in frustration and disengaged from Rosita, who complained at the rude awakening. Del Rey shook her off and crossed his chamber, picking up the device from where he had thrown it hours ago. “What?” he said into it.

“ _Forgive me, lord_ ,” said the toad on the other end, “ _but we’ve received a communication from Lord Clootie. He requests for you to make contact with him immediately_.”

Del Rey paled. Although he certainly enjoyed the benefits of being Clootie’s right hand, actually having to deal with the man (if man he was) was something else entirely. Despite this, he stepped over to the holopad in the corner, pausing only to shoot a glance at Rosita telling her to be quiet.

She nodded. He turned his attention to the screen in front of him, where visual data was being compiled to produce a perfect three-dimensional image of the creature who was both the terror of the galaxy and its ruler. Cold eyes that seemed to change color the longer you looked at them; a head devoid of any hair whatsoever; a nose so pointed it was almost more like a beak.

“Lord Clootie,” said Del Rey, dropping to his knees in deference.

“Mr. Del Rey,” said his lord, the words almost seeming to come out in a hiss. “How fares your search for our new foe?”

“We are in pursuit of her and her friends at this moment, master.”

“Interesting choice of word….’friend’.” Clootie seemed to taste the word, sampling it to see if it belonged in his mouth. “Friends…not allies.”

“Yes, master.” He felt Rosita’s judgmental gaze upon him, but he didn’t dare look towards her. If Clootie took an interest in _her_ …

“You are doing only half of what you say, Robert,” said Clootie finally.

“No, lord, I swear—”

“You do, and you aren’t….but it’s not your fault. The girl and her gun have disappeared beyond my sight….for the moment.”

Del Rey bristled. If what Clootie said was true… “If she’s not with them, she will be before long,” Del Rey declared. “We just need to watch and wait.”

“Yes…” said Clootie. “You can do this?”

“Yes, my lord,” said Del Rey quickly. “You will have her, and you will have the weapon…and the power within it. This I swear.”

Wynonna looked outside at the massive rainfall currently blanketing the region. After maybe a mile of travel through the forest, her host had brought her to an extremely small hut that seemed to have been set up rather haphazardly. It was a single room with a table, chairs, some cutlery, a wash basin, and a bed in the corner. For all intents and purposes, it felt more like something belonging in a video about life in the pre-industrial era rather than anything close to supporting modern living.

A section of the floor lifted up, and the old man emerged from underneath with a bucket of something that to Wynonna’s nose smelled remarkably good. “Now, I hope you’ll forgive the sparseness of this, young lady,” he said, “but I’m normally only taking care of myself, and I am not what you’d call the pickiest of eaters.”

“No worries. My philosophy is ‘If it doesn’t move, I’ll eat it’.” Wynonna sniffed the air. “It does smell good.”

“Thank you, but it might not be up to your culinary rule of not moving.”

“Why? What is it?” asked Wynonna as the man swung the trapdoor shut.

“Soup,” he said. Wynonna looked in the bucket and saw a green concoction that was still bubbling, even though the man had been gone for only a few minutes. Wynonna took a spoon off the table and stuck it into the broth as her host readied a pair of bowls. She sampled the product and although it was a little thick, she wasn’t entirely displeased.

Her host returned to the table and sat down. “So tell me,” he said. “Why do you need Juan Carlo?”

“Heard from a friend of mine that he was the guy to see about weird tech mixed with biology,” said Wynonna as she scooped the soup into her mouth.

“I see…and did this friend have a name?”

“…Henry,” said Wynonna. The man nodded and turned to his own uneaten bowl, picked it up, and started drinking it as though it were water. He put the bowl down and looked at Wynonna. “You know, I don’t think I got your name.”

“Don’t think I got yours, either,” said Wynonna.

The man nodded again. He regarded Wynonna for a minute, and then said, “How much longer are we gonna play this game?”

Wynonna looked back at him. “You tell me…Juan Carlo.”

The man laughed. “Appreciate the designation, Miss Earp, but I am not Juan Carlo.”

“Bullshit,” said Wynonna, slamming Peacemaker on the table with the business end pointed squarely at her host. “What the hell is going on here?”

The man – Juan Carlo – raised an eyebrow. “Afraid I don’t catch your meaning, ma’am.” 

“Oh, you catch, plenty, buddy. Fortunately, so do I.”

“Meaning?”

“All the little tricks? The hidden things? You go downstairs through a secret trap door with nothing and come up with a bucket full of soup?”

“Maybe my kitchen is down there.”

“Oh, I’m _sure_ it is…not to mention that that ‘kitchen’ is behind a reinforced door, meaning it’d be awfully easy to trap someone in there who was pissing you off, like…I am…doing….right now.” Wynonna realized her mistake as Juan Carlo started laughing.

“Well done, young lady,” he said with obvious pleasure. “I am impressed…”

Now she hesitated. “…Thank you?”

“…but that doesn’t change what I told you before. I am not Father Juan Carlo. He died years ago.”

_Shit!_ “So, who are you then?”

“Just Juan Carlo…or Juan Carlo 2.0, to be more accurate.”

“So you retired here and….what, reinvented yourself?”

“In a manner of speaking, yes.” Juan Carlo got up from the table and Wynonna grabbed Peacemaker and pointed it at him. The old man seemed to sigh. “You won’t need that….but bring it, if it makes you more comfortable. This probably pertains to him, after all.”

“Him?”

“John Henry Holliday…the ghost in your machine.”

Wynonna’s breath caught. “How…”

“Come.” Juan Carlo lifted up the entrance to the basement and went in. Wynonna followed from a distance, descending the steps quickly. The chamber was bigger than she would have expected, extending far beyond the boundaries of the cabin above. Her boots echoed against the metal floor as she entered the passage. She caught site of a booted foot disappearing into a room further on and jogged ahead. Taking a position beside the door, she slowly leaned forward and looked into the room.

It was enormous. The room was lined three rows of empty chambers stacked from floor to ceiling all along the walls. All of them were empty, but—

_Hang on_. Wynonna stepped closer and saw that one of them had something in it, a vague humanoid shape, but with the skin and muscles removed. It was as though someone had taken some clay and had carved a replica of a human, but forgot about adding anything to distinguish it once they had the basic shape down.

“Impressed?”

Wynonna jumped and screamed. She hadn’t even heard Juan Carlo behind her. She turned around and pointed at the thing in the tank. “What is this?”

“This…” said Juan Carlo, his voice sounding weary, “…is me. At least, it’s what I was.” He turned to face her. “Juan Carlo died, but before he did, he ensured that he could live on….in me.”

Wynonna looked back and forth between the thing in the tank and the thing in front of her. Was this what she’d set out to find? How was this madness supposed to help Doc? “Okay, start talking, and you better have a _really_ good explanation for all this, or you’ll be as dead as that thing.”

“Of course…but one thing: that thing isn’t dead.”

“Well, what is it then?”

Juan Carlo stepped over to the tank and put his hand on it. He nodded once and said, “It’s waiting.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> #EarpNow #HappyEarpDay #EarpDay


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Stetson crew find a problem with their refuge; Wynonna discovers crucial information concerning both Clootie and Holliday

Waverly slowly opened her eyes.

Everything about last night seemed to have happened in a sort of fever dream. Nicole coming into the server room, them kissing, them…doing more than kissing. She smiled, remembering how every kiss Nicole gave her seemed to make her own face dirtier, but they were having too much fun with each other to do anything about it.

Waverly tried to stretch herself awake, but her hand bumped against the side of the cockpit. _Oh…right_. She remembered the two of them heading down into the main cabin and sneaking around like two schoolchildren so neither Nedley nor Jeremy would notice them. Nicole had opened up the fridge and grabbed as much bottled water as the two of them could carry. They ran into the bathroom, and then…

Waverly laughed a little louder now, remembering the water cascading down each of their faces as they tried to scrub each other clean in the dark. Apparently it had been enough, since after they had gone back to the cockpit and had curled up with each other in Nicole’s seat, and…

“Must have fallen asleep,” said Waverly. She looked around and saw she was alone, though she could hear the others working throughout the ship, finishing up whatever else needed doing. The lights were still on emergency power, but that was okay. Waverly noticed a cloth lump on the floor and picked it up, recognizing it as Nicole’s flight jacket. She slipped it on and smelled, Nicole’s vanilla-tinted scent wafting from it. The jacket was at least two sizes too big for her, but that was okay, because it was _hers_. It was hers, and Waverly was hers, and that was more than okay; that was—

The lights flickered on, and Waverly’s smile grew broader. Jeremy had said interior systems were still okay to use, so this must mean they were close to being able to leave. The floor around her also had her snow pants and panties lying on it, so she threw those on before anyone could disrupt her dignity. She looked outside….

There was something out there.

Waverly blinked and tried to focus her vision. Most of it seemed to be the same old blackness, but there was a spot on the window that seemed to be… _more_ black then the rest. Waverly leaned closer to try to make it out, but it was still too dark. She tapped the glass once, and thought she saw the shape….flex. Even more curious now, she knocked hard on the window.

Waverly screamed. A mouth opened up in the shape and screamed at her, a mouth filled with fangs and pinchers. The shape skittered away, and Waverly could hear drumbeats of its passage echoing across the ship. She ran out into the passage and nearly collided with Nicole, who was dressed casually in her shirt and pants and holding two cups of coffee. “Hey, morning,” she said. “I thought I heard you..” She stopped talking when she saw how panicked Waverly was. “What’s wrong?”

“There’s something out there,” said Waverly.

“What something?”

“I don’t know, a…like a big spider, or something.”

Nicole’s eyes narrowed as she ducked past Waverly into the cockpit. She put the coffees down and reached under her seat, pulling out her pistol. As she checked the charge on the gun, she activated the radio. “Nedley.”

A second later, Nedley’s voice came on. “ _Yeah?_ ”

“We might have company outside. Grab some masks and meet us at the hatch.”

“ _Roger_.” Nicole put the radio down and put a calming hand on Waverly’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, it’s probably nothing.” She pushed out a weak smile and then was off.

“ _Don’t_ worry? That’s not what you tell someone to get them to not worry!” Waverly chased after her and followed her down the stairs just as Jeremy finished climbing them. “Hey,” he said. “What’s happening?”

“Something’s outside,” said Waverly quickly. She ran down the stairs and saw Nedley and Nicole putting on breathing masks. When Nedley saw her, he reached behind and produced a third for her. Smiling at his intuition, Waverly took the mask and strapped it on.

“Mask checks,” said Nicole. She examined Nedley’s for any breaks or bad seals, and Nedley checked Waverly for the same. When they had finished, Nicole crouched in front of Waverly, who got the hint and examined Nicole’s own seals. “You’re good,” she said.

“Right,” said Nicole. “Just do an easy perimeter check. Stay close to the ship, no big hero stuff, nothing—”

“Nothing Wynonna-like, you mean?” joked Waverly. Beside her, Nedley put out a laugh that quickly turned into a cough.

Nicole shook her head and triggered the hatch. “Just…be careful.” The hatch lowered, and the trio went outside. The ground was covered in a thick fog, and when Waverly put her foot down it seemed to stick for a second before coming back up. “Ground’s pretty….heavy,” she said.

“I don’t like this,” said Nedley. “We should just fire up the ship and get out.”

“We will,” said Nicole. “I just want to be—” There was a grunt, and Waverly could hear Nicole struggling.

“Nicole? Baby?” Waverly ran to the other side of the ship and saw Nicole fighting with a round shape on top of her. She screamed a challenge at it and drew her leg back as far as she could before kicking it off of her girlfriend. The creature went flying but managed to land right side up. In the dim cavern light, Waverly could just make out a bristly body fitted with nearly a dozen legs. The shape screamed at her again and was answered with a laser blast.

Waverly turned and saw Nedley behind her, his own gun pointed at the creature. He walked over to them and kept his gun trained on the creature in case it was still alive. He glanced at the women and said to Waverly, “Is she alright?”

Waverly returned her attention to Nicole, who was coughing but sitting upright. “Don’t move too fast,” Waverly cautioned. “Did it….”

“I’m fine,” said Nicole. “Really. Damn thing just surprised me. Dropped from up there.” She pointed at the underside of the _Stetson_. “Nedley…what was it?”

Nedley was crouched next to his victim. “Not sure,” he said. “Looks like some kind of spider, but bigger. A lot uglier, too.”

“How would a spider even get that big?” said Nicole.

“Space radiation, maybe?” ventured Waverly. “Years of isolation making it adapt to catch bigger prey?”

“Not very well,” said Nicole. “It’s barely up to my knee.”

“Well, maybe the prey it usually has here is a lot smaller than us, or…” Nedley frowned and knelt to look at the thing, then he looked around them.

“Nedley?” said Nicole.

“…or this was just a baby.” The ground shook around them, and Nicole, who had been leaning on Waverly, fell face first into the mist.

“Nicole!” Waverly leaned down to help her up.

“Get back on the ship,” Nicole said, her voice on the edge of panic.

“We will, let’s just—”

“ _NOW1_ ” Nicole screamed. She pushed herself off the ground and began running, pausing just long enough to grab Waverly and drag her behind her. They were barreling up the ramp seconds later with Nedley just behind. As Nicole closed the hatch and ran for the cockpit, she screamed again, “ _Jeremy!_ We good to go?”

“ _Yeah, everything’s wired up. Why, what’s—_ ”

“This isn’t a cave,” she said, running for the cockpit. Waverly and Nedley caught up with her just in time to see her powering up the _Stetson_.

“What do you mean?” said Waverly. “What is it?”

“A den,” said Nicole. The ship powered up and Nicole lifted off immediately, slamming a series of buttons to bring up the landing gear. They rocketed forward and Waverly thought she heard an even louder drumming all around them. She held onto Nicole’s seat as the pilot guided them swiftly out of the cavern and into space at a shallow angle of ascent. Waverly looked outside as they circled around and caught a glimpse of giant legs scrambling up the sides of the hole as more of the baby space spiders spilled out of it.

“What…” said Waverly.

“Hope you’re not an arachnophobe after that,” said Nicole.

“Where’s Jeremy?” said Nedley. The three looked around in panic. A crash sounded above them, and Nedley gestured Waverly away from the hatch leading to the server room. He pressed the release switch, and Jeremy came crashing down with a thud.

“Hey,” he said, looking up at his companions. “What’d I miss?”

Waverly rolled her eyes. “You two tell him,” she said. “I need to get dressed.”

“Many years ago,” said Juan Carlo, “there was a man who had been charged with keeping something safe. He failed in this duty, and it went badly for him after that. He turned to drink, and it liked him. Eventually, though, that plan too turned against him and he found himself outside a church one night, looking for salvation. He found it…or rather, it found him.”

“Clootie’s church,” said Wynonna.

Juan Carlo nodded. “At the time, it was a mere shadow of what it is now – just a small group led by a highly charismatic individual who hid his true self well. He took the disgraced man in and made him his first father. Even gave him a new name to wash away his old life.”

“And that’s the original Juan Carlo.”

Juan Carlo nodded at her. “Juan Carlo was a skilled man, whatever else happened to him. When I said he was charged with keeping something safe, it was because he was _very_ good with robots – could make some of the most realistic ones you could ever hope to see. So real, even, that you couldn’t even tell where the robot ended and the man began.”

Wynonna thought of Jeremy and the revenants. “You mean…cyborgs? Enhanced humans?”

“For a starting block, sure. Clootie’s endgame was basically making death a thing of the past, at least for select people. He’d be able to rule forever, a god in human form. To do that, though, he needed people. Test subjects, sure, but also doctors, engineers…people who could make his vision come to be.”

“Why not just do it himself?”

“Well, charisma only gets you so far. When it comes to doing the heavy lifting, he couldn’t…as in literally couldn’t. Had some sort of soft-bone disease that meant every movement had to be slow and careful.”

Wynonna nodded. “Small wonder he wanted to live forever, then.”

“Exactly. And he got close, with the revenants…perpetual healing from any injury will get you quite far along that road…”

“But it wasn’t enough.”

“No…and when Juan Carlo realized this and saw what the revenants might be capable of, he began working on a plan of his own.”

“Peacemaker…he designed it.”

“He did. That weapon…it’s more than just a gun, young lady. In the right hands, it’s a key.”

Wynonna thought about this. “So how’s it work, then?”

“No idea.”

Wynonna looked at the Juan Carlo in front of her. “Sorry, you want to say that last part again?”

“Juan Carlo was able to design the gun, and from what I can tell it’s put together with his original plans….but it’s also heavily modified from them. Best I can tell you is that there’s enough freedom in that design to let it change into something more, but what that is…” Juan Carlo shrugged.

Wynonna sighed. “Well, at least that explains why Clootie wants it…to power his big ol’…whatever it is.” Wynonna gestured to Juan Carlo. “Is that where you come from?”

Juan Carlo nodded. “One of the other projects going on was creating new bodies for revenants to download into if they were destroyed. When Juan Carlo was found out, it was…with difficulty. He managed to steal one of the ships that was transporting the molds, but was badly hurt. He used the machinery in there to set up a DNA extrapolation, transferred a scan of his mind into the system, and died about six hours before I was born.”

“So….” Wynonna thought over everything she’d been told. “When you said that…that mold…was waiting…”

“Needs data to read and a sample of actual Holliday to shape itself off of, but after a day or so…”

Wynonna leaned against the walls of the hut, thinking over her options. “What kind of sample are we talking about?”

Juan Carlo shrugged. “A hair, saliva, an old cigarette he smoked…if the man had a house, pretty much anything in it should work – the more data, the better the sample.”

Wynonna nodded. “Okay. One more question.”

“Shoot.”

“How soon can you start?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There was originally a slight problem with this chapter. According to my outline, I accidentally combined stuff that should have appeared in the next chapter into Wynonna's section. Fortunately, the content doesn't seem to suffer too much, so I'm able to keep things on a regular schedule.
> 
> The new chapter 12 should post later today.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rosita faces resistance from Del Rey; the church continues their hunt for the Stetson; Nicole gets an idea

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters in one day? Inconceivable!
> 
> In all seriousness, though, I wasn't originally planning to do this. Part of my outline is a detailing of scenes in 'The Empire Strikes Back' paired with my own versions of those scenes. When I was writing the last chapter, I didn't realize until after I was done that I'd pushed together the bit with Wynonna finding out how to help Doc after the history lesson (the equivalent scenes being the vision cave and the X-Wing lift, which have a whole bit with Han and the Empire between them). Fortunately, I was able to come up with enough to make up for the loss, so each chapter can proceed as they would have normally.
> 
> On a more serious note, I am putting a trigger warning in here for a bit of violence in the first section. Massive apologies if it brings up anything,

Rosita paced restlessly in the quarters aboard the _Svane_ that Del Rey had requisitioned for her. While they weren’t technically what one would call ‘together’, they had enjoyed a semi-professional working relationship (with benefits) for years. Hell, it was him that had gotten her started in the bounty business, so in a way, she owed him for all of it…and it was a debt that normally she didn’t mind owing.

Normally.

At the moment, though, she felt as likely to shoot Bobo – _Robert_ – as to fuck him. Her one rule with him had always been _not_ to tell her how or when to do her work. Luck was too rare in this universe, and if an opportunity came up, you had to grab it with both hands and choke that sucker into submission. Not that it was easy to do that when she was trapped in a goddamn suite all day and her ship was for all intents and purposes locked down…

“Fuck it,” she said. She grabbed her equipment and threw it on, making sure all her readings were at max. It wouldn’t do if she were to run out of power in the middle of a job. She ran down her list _: grenades, check; portable generator, charged and check; surveillance, up and running; ocular circuitry, fully functional; weapons…_ she ran her hand down the long barrel of her sniper rifle, danced her fingers over the chamber of her wrist-mounted blaster/grapple combination, and finally let it come to rest on her custom-built double-stocked laser pistol, the only gun in the universe that fired a blast so big because it technically came from one gun which could be separated into two and recombined as necessary.

_Biggest blast in the universe_ , she thought with a smile. She frowned. _Well…not_ quite _the biggest._

Satisfied with her loadout, she took one last look around the room and headed for the door. Before she could leave, it opened and there stood Del Rey, in all his smug glory.

“What are you so happy about?” she shot at him.

“Oh….you wound me.” Bobo staggered backward slightly as though she had actually shot him, but then the grin was back and he was entering the room.

“Don’t tempt me…or actually, do.” She huffed and tried to storm away from him, but his position at the door and the size of the room didn’t allow that. She faced him again and said, “Why am I here, Robert?”

“To do what you do: hunt.”

“Then _why aren’t I?_ ” Rosita threw her hands up in disgust. “You called me months ago to track down and i.d. those bitches. I got you that information, stored it in your little computers, and what did you do with it?”

“Don’t—”

“ _Nothing!_ That’s what! You have done nothing but sit around and chase a bunch of drifters who—”

A fist struck her high on her left side and Rosita was tossed backward. Rosita lay on the floor, trying to comprehend what had just happened. Del Rey towered above her, his face seeming to catch up to everything that had just happened. He took a step toward her and she brought her dual to bear on him. “Don’t,” she said. He nodded and stepped back, and she found her footing, keeping the gun trained on him the whole time.

He tried again. “Angel—”

“Don’t,” she repeated. “I’m going. You’re just wasting time waiting for them. _If_ they show up again, I’ll give you a call once I’ve tracked them down. Otherwise…” Rosita shoved past him and headed for the hangar, where her ship, the _Legacy_ , was currently idling, waiting to be used again. Del Rey could do whatever he liked, but she…she was done waiting.

Del Rey stared after the departing back of Rosita, cursing himself. His emotions were always more turbulent when she was nearby, their connection making him both more open and more volatile. Her cavalier attitude and eagerness to provoke him didn’t help, but this…

His communicator sounded, and he sighed. _It’s always something…_ He lifted the device to his mouth. “Yes?”

“ _My lord,_ ” came Gardner’s voice. “ _We have them_.”

Nicole guided the _Stetson_ out of the asteroid field at half-speed. With the shields powered down and the engines on life support, she was taking absolutely no chances.

“Where’s that destroyer?” said Nedley.

“Doesn’t matter,” said Nicole. “Holorsoon coordinates still in there?”

“Nicole, that’s kinda far…” cautioned Jeremy.

“She’ll be fine. Jumping in five…four...”

“There they are!” shouted Waverly.

“Threetwoonego!” Her and Nedley pulled the trigger for the hyperdrive…and nothing. Nicole blinked, her mind struggling. “That’s…but we fixed it. We fixed it.”

“Nicole…”

“We fixed it; I _know_ we fixed it!”

“ _NICOLE!_ ” Nicole snapped out of it and saw the fighters converging on their position. “Shit! Hang on, everyone!”

“Target sighted,” said the man at tactical. “They have…no shields?”

“Easier to kill them, then,” said Gardner. “You may fire when ready.”

“Yes, sir. Firing.” Gardner watched as lasers shot out towards the pathetic little craft that had been eluding them for far too long. It was close, but the pilot managed to dodge them. It didn’t matter; they were unshielded and insignificant ants.

This would be over soon.

“Ohhhh, we’re dead,” said Jeremy “We’re dead. We are so dead. We—”

“SHUT UP!” roared Nicole and Waverly together. Waverly leaned forward and examined all the readouts as best she could. “What’s it saying? Why aren’t we moving?”

“We’re not moving now?” said Jeremy.

“I don’t know! I don’t know what’s wrong!” Nicole glanced around the cockpit frantically. She stared at the destroyer ahead of them, and her face froze. “Do you guys trust me?”

“Absolutely,” said Waverly.

“Definitely,” said Nedley.

“My head hurts,” said Jeremy.

“Okay,” said Nicole. “Hang on.”

“What are they doing?” said Gardner.

In the pit below him, the man at ops said, “Sir…they appear to be moving into attack position.”

“Going out on their terms….commendable.” Despite the situation, Gardner had to give the pilot credit for bravery, if not brains. “Forward shields at maximum. Track them and fire as soon as they clear us.”

The ship flew toward them at blazing speed. Within seconds, Gardner was watching it pass through the forward viewport. “They’re past; engage,” he said. Silence greeted his command. “I said _engage_ ,” he growled.

“Admiral,” said the ops officer. “The ship….is no longer on our radar.”

_What?_ “Did they jump to lightspeed?”

“If they had jumped that close to us, we would have felt it, sir.”

“Cloaking?”

“Even if it was cloaked from radar, sir, at that range we would still be able to see them.”

Gardner stalked toward the pit. “Do you see them, Sargent?”

“No, sir,” said the officer.

“Do you see this?” Before the officer could respond, Gardner brought his boot up into the man’s face and was kicking it hard from his position on the raised pathway. After several hits, the man fell backward out of his chair and lay on the floor, gasping for air through his broken nose.

“They did not vanish, and they did not jump to lightspeed. They’re here somewhere. _Find. Them_.”

Two hours later, they were no closer.

Gardner and the officers who had been at ops and navigation stood before Del Rey. Their fearsome leader paced back and forth, listening to the full report. 

“So,” he said, when the three had finished speaking, “What you are essentially telling me is that the one ship in the area that we have been searching for not only eluded us, but we don’t even know where they might be now?”

The navigation officer spoke up. “Their last known trajectory put them on a course for over a dozen civilized and uncivilized systems, lord. Given their reputation, I have already forwarded the necessary details to all of our bases in those areas.”

“Oh, not a complete failure then,” said Del Rey. “At least your family can take comfort in that.”

“Thank you, my lord,” said the officer. He then frowned. “My…family?”

“Yes,” said Del Rey, who swiftly turned and plunged his hand deep into the officer’s neck. When he withdrew it, he was pulling out part of the man’s esophagus. He released the canal and let it drop to the floor as the man choked to death in front of him. He strode over to the other two. Gardner barely seemed to move, but the other officer was trembling. Still feeling angry, Del Rey growled to the tactician, “Clean that up.”

The young officer nodded and made for the exit. Del Rey was in front of him in seconds and said, “Where are you going?”

“To…to get supplies to clean—”

“I don’t think so. Clean…it…up.”

“With…what, sir?”

Del Rey rolled his eyes. “Use your imagination, man.” He punched the officer in the head, dazing him, and was soon pulling off his uniform top and undershirt. “That should do for a start. You know where to find more, I imagine.”

The officer paled. “Y…yes, sir.”

“G…good boy. Go.”

The officer immediately took to his task as Del Rey strode over to the last of the three. Gardner continued to remain unbothered, simply staring at the man cleaning up Del Rey’s latest victim. “Fascinating,” he said. “The best solution would have been to kill all of us for failure, yet instead you kill one, humiliate another, and let me remain in command.”

“You seem rather confident.”

“Only because I am.”

Del Rey nodded. “And what if I were only trying to get close enough to rip both your arms off and beat you with them?”

“You could do that, of course…but it would waste time that I could better spend figuring out where those scum went.”

Del Rey scowled. He was not used to being seen through so easily. “Do it.” Gardner walked off. “Admiral?” He heard Gardner pause. “You have one chance. Don’t make me regret this.”

“Of course, sir.”

“We’re dead, we’re dead, we’re dead, we’re dead, we’re—”

“Jeremy, calm down. Nicole knows what she’s doing.”

“No she doesn’t we’re dead we’re dead, we’re dead, we’re—”

Nedley turned in his seat. “Is there _any_ way you can turn him off?”

“—dead, we’re dead, we’re—”

“Well, he’s always been kind of nervous, but this…” Waverly gestured weakly at her friend and shrugged. Jeremy seemed to have progressed beyond nervous and entered some sort of panic attack, only instead of fainting his computer had put him in a recursive loop. “I’ve seriously never seen him like this….it’s kinda fascinating.”

The reason for Jeremy’s nervousness was understandable. Nicole had flown so close to the Serpenten destroyer that they were effectively inside it’s radar signal. Anyone looking for their ship would be unable to pinpoint it thanks to their being overshadowed by the much larger destroyer they were currently resting on top of. All they had to do was just wait for the destroyer to head out of the system and detach beforehand. With any luck, they’d read as nothing more than space debris.

None of which helped solve the current problem of Jeremy. “What if we shocked him?” said Nicole

Waverly looked at her. “You mean like with hiccups?”

“No…I mean like with this.” She held up a small taser.

Waverly’s eyes narrowed. “Another one of your secret compartments?”

Nicole shrugged. “I like being prepared.”

“I don’t care what you call it,” said Nedley. “Enough’s enough.” He took the taser and after checking the setting applied it right to Jeremy’s spine. The cyborg jittered for a second, said, “I feel funny…”, and slid backwards into Nedley’s arms.

“Finally,” said Nedley. “I’ll put him in bed.”

“Can I have a story, poppy?” Jeremy muttered.

Nedley sighed. “Sure, kid.”

Despite the violence, Waverly smiled at the sight of Nedley all but carrying the much smaller Jeremy to bed. She turned back to Nicole, who was checking the readings of the ship again. “Are we okay?”

“Think so,” said Nicole. “Everything about the initializer is reading fine, and the ship is fully green now. Probably it was just the sudden liftoff back in Spidertown that did us in last time.”

Waverly shuddered. “Can we please never mention that again?”

“Gladly,” said Nicole, who scooted over so Waverly could rest on the arm of the chair.

“Good,” said Waverly. “So what are our options? You said close…”

“Yeah, and there’s not a whole lot nearby. I’ll say this much – you guys definitely did good when it came to picking an isolated territory.” Nicole flicked through the navmap as she spoke. “Closest thing to us right now is some mining colony, but….huh.”

Waverly waited for her to continue, but Nicole was oddly quiet. “Huh what?”

“Well, it’s the mining colony. I didn’t see this before, but….Shae.”

Waverly’s brow furrowed. “’Shae’? Is that some super-cool space captain slang I don’t know about?”

Nicole smiled at her. “Shae isn’t a word, she’s a doctor -- Dr. Shae Pressman. Someone I used to know, back when me and Nedley were just starting out. She helped us out, patched us up….gave us a place to stay…”

Nedley came back into the cabin. “What are we talking about?”

“Your old friend Shae, apparently,” said Waverly.

“Really,” said Nedley. “What, uh…what brought her up?”

“Apparently she’s the one running that gas mining colony over in…Caspin, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah,” said Nicole. “She’s definitely good people, and we can trust her.”

“Can we?” Waverly asked Nedley.

“Well,” said Nedley, “she has no love for the church. As far as trust…” Nedley shrugged.

“We don’t have any other options,” said Nicole. Movement ahead of her caught her eye. “The fleet’s moving. Get ready with the manual landing gear release.”

“On it,” said Nedley. He went down to the lower deck to prepare for Nicole’s signal.

Once he’d gone, Waverly turned back to Nicole. “So, Caspin, then.”

“Yup.”

“With your old doctor friend.’

“Yup.”

Waverly hesitated, and then plunged ahead. “Are you sure there’s nothing you’re not saying?”

Nicole sighed. “Well, our relationship is a little…complicated.”

“Complicated,” said Waverly.

“Nothing that can’t be worked out between three grown women. I’m sure it’ll be fine.” She shifted position and picked up the radio. “Okay, Nedley, they’re moving fast now. Hit it in three…two…”

There was the clunk of something releasing under the ship, and then they were slowly drifting. Nicole waited until the destroyer had achieved lightspeed and was gone, then began hitting switches. “Okay, powering up systems…setting course…” She glanced at Waverly. “Crossing fingers?” Waverly raised her hand to show that her fingers were indeed crossed. Nicole checked the panel. “Nedley’s still downstairs. Would you…” She gestured toward the lightspeed controls and Waverly grinned. She took Nedley’s usual seat and reached, her fingers barely brushing the lever. Nicole laughed slightly, and Waverly shot her a look. The laugh stopped, but Nicole was still smiling. Waverly shook her head, knelt on the seat, and got a firm grip around the handle this time. “In three…”

“Two…” said Nicole.

“One…” they said together. The levers were pulled, and the _Stetson_ blasted off into lightspeed.

At the edge of the asteroid field, one more ship remained.

The _Legacy_ was the extremely humble property of Rosita. Everything in it was hers and hers alone. Although it wasn’t as fancy as the suite Del Rey had prepared for her or roomy as any of a dozen freighters – freighters like the one she had just observed exiting the system – it was hers, and it was all she needed.

Right now, it was telling her that one of her needs had just exited the system, mere moments after Robert and his gang of idiots had abandoned it. Soon, it would be telling her what system Haught and her friends were seeking refuge in. And after that, it would be telling her how much space Haught’s body was taking up in the cargo hold as she finally delivered it to Bunny.

Rosita smiled thinly and moved her ship away from the asteroids. It was time to go to work.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Doc and Dolls get some work done; the Stetson arrives at Caspin; Jeremy has an encounter

When Wynonna woke up the following morning, the air smelled different. It wasn’t anything she could immediately define, but something either in the air or in the food Juan Carlo had given her last night put an extra spring in her step. It certainly didn’t resemble any high from anything she had previously imbibed, but all the same, it was a surprisingly pleasant feeling.

 _Maybe it’s hope_.

Wynonna nearly gagged at the thought. Hope was not something she’d had a lot of in life, at least in the main portion of it. Having to kill your family and be raised in a world that treated you like crap tended to reinforce that. And yet, she had a surprising number of bonuses: she had found her sister, even if _she_ didn’t know it; she had a half-decent drinking buddy; she had a wicked cool gun…and as of last night, she had a chance at getting Doc out of said gun and into a body again. A robot body, true, but he’d be out of Peacemaker and able to move around on two legs of his own.

She never thought she’d say it, but life…was actually good.

Of course, Daddy would say that things going good just meant that a metric ton of shit was about to fall into your lap, but what did he know? He was just a lonely old alcoholic whose wife left him. She was a _non_ -lonely alcoholic in a very consensual relationship with a talking gun that would only leave her when she died, in which case _she_ would be leaving _it,_ thank you very much.

That settled, Wynonna rolled out of the sleeping pack she had set up beside the X-Wing. Juan Carlo had offered to let her stay in the house, or even the ship beneath it, but Wynonna had declined, saying that one was too echoey and the other too damp. She may have also said something about not wanting to sleep while a mechhead sat up and watched her all night, but her memory was a little hazy on that score. 

“Good morning!”

Wynonna almost ducked at the suddenness of Juan Carlo’s greeting. “Geez, man,” said Wynonna. “Make a little noise when you walk.”

“I believe I was, you’re just too far away to hear it.” The old man/robot was ambling over from the edge of the woods on the path that led to his house. “Did you sleep well?”

“Fine, I guess. What about you? Did you have pleasant dreams of starship batteries getting it on with each other?” At Juan Carlo’s look, she said, “Yeah, that…kinda died on the table. Hey,” she said as something occurred to her. “ _Do_ you sleep, even?”

“We _can_ sleep, although it’s closer to when you turn your vehicle off at the end of the day.”

“So no dreams, then.”

“No…although given how many individual files and programs would be running at any time, I suppose you could call those dreams, couldn’t you, John Henry?”

“ _Philosophy was never really in my wheelhouse, partner._ ”

Wynonna nearly jumped. That was Doc, but it had come from Juan Carlo’s waist. He held up Peacemaker and casually tossed it over to her. As it flew, she heard Doc screaming, which was cut off as soon as she caught it. “ _Sir_ ,” he said. “ _I would greatly appreciate it if you could fuck off and never do that again_.”

“Of course, Mr. Holliday.”

“Hey! Assholes! What’s going on?” Wynonna felt like she was ten miles behind in a five-mile race that had started three weeks ago. “Why are you,” she pointed at Peacemaker, “talking without a radio on – wait.” She examined her belt and sure enough, the radio was both there and off. Continuing her investigation, she pointed at Juan Carlo. “Why did _you_ have my Doc – my gun – Peacemaker, and where the hell is—”

“I’m here, Wynonna,” said Dolls, coming out of the trees.

Wynonna looked at Dolls. “You just used a transaction.”

“Contraction,” corrected Juan Carlo.

“Oh, I’ll contract you. What the _fuck_ is going on here? I go to sleep for…” she waved her hand in the air. “…hours and suddenly everyone loves _you?_ What are you, the freaking robot whisperer?”

“Answering your questions in reverse order…no, I’m just a robot.”

“Just a robot…” Wynonna muttered.

“Second and third, after you fell asleep, I felt some form of good faith proof would do some good, so I examined your weapon as best I could, removed the microphone that was in there, and replaced it with a two-way I happened to have handy. The short version of that is that the gun’s audio receiver – that bit that lets you speak your little phrase to it – is now more of a transmitter/speaker combination, so your friend can now express himself more fully on his own terms.”

 _“I believe that_ is _why we came out here in the first place, Wynonna_.”

“Shut up, Doc; you’re not helping.”

“ _You saying that kind of proves the man’s point_.”

“Okay, fine! He did exactly what we wanted him to do, and even threw getting Dolls speaking normally into the deal free-of-charge! Happy?”

Juan Carlo smiled awkwardly. “Well, it’s…not a traditional thank you, but I suppose I’ll take what I can get.” He bowed his head at her and headed back into the trees. “Before you go, we really should go over one more time just what’s needed! We can talk more after your call, though!”

“My _call?_ ” _What the hell is he talking about?_ Wynonna shook her head and gestured to Dolls in a get-over-here method. As the robot approached, Wynonna said, “So what the hell happened?”

Dolls looked back at where Juan Carlo was disappearing into the trees. “Pretty much what the man said. Switched out the speaker in Peacemaker; did…. _something_ to my programming, I’m not even sure what—”

“Well, you’re definitely a lot more verbal than before.”

Dolls nodded. “Is that bad?”

Wynonna shrugged. “I’ll let you know.” She clapped the robot on the shoulder, but he had gone entirely still, something blinking behind his eyes. “Aaaaaand he’s busted. Pea—”

“Call from the _Stetson_ coming in.”

“—chy.” Wynonna sighed. “Patch it to the radio, data dude.”

“I can’t take it out here, Wynonna. I was just—”

“Yeah, I know, I know, I was just….testing you.” Not looking back to see if her believed her, Wynonna climbed up the ship and threw the helmet with its attached communicator on. “Nicole?”

Nicole nearly dropped the radio in surprise. “Wynonna?’

“ _The one and only. You guys keeping warm?_ ”

“Uh…yeah. Hey, how’d you know it was me?”

“ _Dolls picked up your signal. He’s…gotten a few upgrades._ ”

Catching on, Nicole leaned forward. “Peacemaker? Doc?”

“ _Might have something. Nothing solid yet, but….hey, where are you? Is Waverly okay?_ ”

Nicole glanced to her right and offered the radio to Waverly, who was still wearing her flight jacket. It looked good on her…but then, why wouldn’t it? Waverly rose from her seat and leaned into the radio, deliberately brushing a little closer than was necessary to Nicole. “Right here, Wy,” she said happily. “We are currently en route to get some repairs at a quaint little mining colony in scenic Caspin.”

Nicole could practically hear Wynonna rolling her eyes at Waverly’s joyous tone. “ _So you made it out? You’re safe?_ ”

“Much as can be,” said Nicole. “We’ll probably be here for at least a day or two until the ship’s ready, so try and meet us if you can.”

“ _You got room for my fighter on your ship, Haught?_ ”

“We’ll sync it up somehow.”

“ _Cool. I still got some stuff to do here, but…tomorrow, hopefully, yeah?_ ”

“Great. See you then,” said Nicole.

“Bye, Wy!” said Waverly quickly. Nicole turned the radio over to Caspin’s main receiving channel and looked at Waverly. “’Bye, Wy’?”

“Rhyming is fun, my red-headed one.” She giggled.

Nicole shook her head. “As fun as it is, there is still one thing we should talk about.”

“Okay…” Waverly shifted in her seat.

“Nothing bad, I think. It’s just that Shae and me…well…”

“Is this the complicated bit?” asked Waverly.

“Yeah. We were kind of…together...for a time.”

“Right, she was helping you and…” Waverly stopped talking when she saw the look on Nicole’s face. “Oh.”

“Yeah. Oh.” Nicole checked the panel to see if they were still on course.

“Do you…still love her?” asked Waverly quietly.

“ _No_ ,” said Nicole. “We – Nedley and me – were both pretty beat up; spent about a month getting patched up and hiding out under fake names and occupations.”

“Fake names…” said Waverly. “What was yours?”

Nicole bit her lip. “Nicole….Pressman.”

Waverly’s eyes grew wide. “Pressman? As in…Shae?”

“Yeah, as in.”

Waverly started pacing around the cockpit as Nicole put the ship on final approach toward Caspin’s main city. “But you didn’t… _actually_ marry her, right?” Nicole was silent. “ _Nicole…_ ”

Nicole sighed. “They said it had to appear completely legitimate. I’m honestly not sure why they felt the need to have a ceremony and certificate, but—”

“ _WHAT?_ ”

“Waves, hey, hey, hey.” Nicole adjusted course slightly and locked in their heading. She got up and approached Waverly slowly. “I swear, it was just for cover and convenience, nothing….emotional. We were only there – here—a month, and I made sure she got the marriage dissolved before we left.”

Waverly seemed to be on the edge of panic. “But…you were still married. How do you know she doesn’t feel the same way? How do I know _you_ don’t feel some way?”

“Hey,” Nicole said. She stepped next to Waverly and put Waverly’s hand over her heart. “I love you. _You_. Only you. Whoever else I may have been with, they don’t matter. You are the only person I want to be with for the rest of my life, okay?”

Waverly was still a little watery-eyed, but she had stopped panicking. She looked up at Nicole and said, “Was that a proposal?”

Instantly, sweat broke out on Nicole’s brow. “That….that was…”

Waverly laughed and kissed her right on the mouth, cutting her off. “I’m kidding, baby. Come on. Let’s land this thing.”

As Nicole guided the _Stetson_ onto their assigned landing pad, Waverly glanced outside nervously. It wasn’t just that they were entering unknown territory. It was that this territory was run by someone who had once been involved with Nicole…someone who for all they knew still loved Nicole…

 _Stop it_ , she told herself. This was a _doctor_ , for crying out loud – not some skeevy bartender from the backwaters of…wherever. More importantly, she seemed to be the only person in the sector who they could come close to trusting. Whatever history she had with Nicole was just that, and if she tried anything, Waverly would handle it.

As the ship touched down, Waverly noticed a beautiful woman with perfect caramel skin. She was tall, or taller than the guards she was leaving behind as she approached the ship. Waverly gestured to the woman and Nicole nodded. “That’s Shae.”

Despite their apparent relationship, Waverly was almost in awe of the woman…and a little intimidated. On the one hand, there was Waverly: a well-enough educated woman who had a gift for languages (four speaking at last count, and understanding who knew how many others) and a beauty that was regularly described as angelic, though whenever Waverly pressed for specifics, they always ended up being compliments regarding her hair.

So, she had nice hair. Wonderful.

Shae had nice hair, but unlike Waverly’s it was cropped short to just above her shoulders and was perfectly parted on her left side. A trio of golden chains encircled her neck, each dipping a little lower down her chest and flapping loosely enough that they wouldn’t constrict her breathing but tight enough that they wouldn’t go flying. In deference to the chill from being both outside and high in the atmosphere, she was wearing a sleeveless red turtleneck sweater and a white coat that billowed out behind her. In a way, it was almost the last word in medical coats: both functional in the operating halls and perfectly at home in any fashion shows, and alright, maybe Waverly _was_ a little jealous, but it was fine; she had Nicole.

Right?

As Waverly stared at someone who she was definitely _not_ jealous of, thank you very much, Nicole finished touching down and turned the ship off. She turned to Waverly and said, “Ready?”

Unable to speak just then, Waverly nodded. Nicole took her hand and led them both to the entry ramp, which Nedley and a recovered and calmed Jeremy were waiting next to. “Hey, guys,” said Jeremy. “So, I may have gotten a little….weird…last night—”

“It’s fine, Jeremy,” said Nicole. “You panicked. It happens.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, it’s not like you went to bed drunk and wandered into the cockpit naked.”

“Oh, for—” said Nedley. “That was _one time_ , and you said you’d never mention it again.”

Waverly and Jeremy stared at him as Nicole stifled a smile. “I…didn’t, actually.”

Nedley frowned as the fact that Nicole hadn’t said a name dawned on him. He sighed. “Fine. If you need me, I’ll be outside….testing how far it is to the ground.”

“Gotcha,” said Nicole. Waverly stuck out her arm, and Nicole took it, escorting her down the ramp as Jeremy followed. Ahead of them, Nedley was giving a warm hug to Shae and exchanging a pleasant greeting with her. She stopped talking when she saw Nicole, though. For a moment, all on the pad were silent, until finally Shae said, “Well…this is a surprise.”

Nicole tried for a warm smile, but it came off as more of an embarrassed grimace. “Hi, Shae.”

Shae walked over to Nicole and wrapped her up in a deep hug, the kind known only to lovers who hadn’t seen each other in ages. After the hug had gone on a few seconds too long, Waverly cleared her throat and said, “Uh, excuse me? Doctor?” Shae seemed to remember where she was and who else was there. “I’m sorry, I just…haven’t seen Nicole – Captain Haught – in…” Noticing their still linked arms, Shae turned an appropriate shade of red, but recovered with grace. “Doctor Shae Pressman, I run this facility.”

“Waverly Gibson,” said Waverly, extending her hand.

Shae did a double-take. “Not…. _Princess_ Waverly Gibson? Of Alderaan that was?” Off Waverly’s face, she said, “My…princess, I am so sorry for your losses, and for not having an appropriate reception—”

“It’s fine, Doctor. Truly. Any reception that doesn’t included being shot at is a good one.”

“Yes, I can imagine.” A message came through on Shae’s earpiece, and Shae scowled. “Send them to the back landing pad. I’ll deal with them directly.” She sighed and gestured that they should follow her. “Come on. I’ll show you to your rooms and you can tell me what’s wrong with the ship this time.”

“It’s nothing major,” said Nicole. “A little trouble with the hyperdrive. Probably not more than a few hours work—”

“Nonsense. That ship was out-of-date when you showed up with it last time. By now it probably needs a full parts manifest. I’ll have my mechanics take a look at it right away.”

“Thanks, Shae,” said Nicole. “I appreciate it.”

“So, you run this place?” asked Waverly.

“I do,” answered Shae proudly, leading them through the halls. “Gas mining is a fairly standard practice, but there’s still a decent amount of risk involved. The overseers – the people I report to, that is – wanted either an experienced worker or some military yes-man for the position. They nearly laughed me out of the candidate pool, but I convinced them that they could double their profits by turning part of this place into a sector-wide hospital.” Shae laughed. “Turns out people actually like getting healed and will pay for the privilege.”

“That doesn’t exactly sound noble of you,” noted Waverly.

“Waves…” said Nicole warningly.

“No, she’s right…and honestly, I hated having to boil my love for medicine to a profit margin. It was the only way I could even get my foot in the door, though….and for what it’s worth, it worked. They put me in the big chair, and now those people who thought it was a crazy proposition at best are falling over themselves thanking me every month when the quarterly profit sheets roll in.”

“Wow, that’s kind of impressive,” said Nicole. “From caring doctor to calculating businesswoman in just three short years.”

 _Three years?_ thought Waverly, but Shae was laughing too. “Oh, I’m still doctoring. I make sure to spend at least two hours on call in the medical wing every business day. It gets a little tricky to fit in sometimes, but I’d rather lose sleep over expense reports and labor issues and injured workers than get a good night’s rest any day of the week.”

Beside her, Nedley laughed. “Well, that’s a thing; you sound just like Waverly, almost.”

“Do I?” said Shae, glancing over at Waverly. Waverly shrugged but didn’t answer. Shae dismissed it and said, “I suppose, if half of the rumors about you all I’ve heard are true.” Before they could ask what she meant, Shae stopped outside a room. “Here we are.”

The door opened, and Waverly gasped. Not since Alderaan had she been in a room of such decadence and luxury. Nearly every surface in the room was sparkling white, from the tiled miniature kitchen to the soft couches that were just begging to be sunk into. An electric furnace was set up on one side of the room, and a fire was already going, adding a warmth to the room that was extremely welcome after the past months of hiding in space and on a barren ice planet.

“Shae…Dr. Pressman…” said Waverly.

“Shae, please.”

Waverly relaxed and smiled. “Thank you for this.”

“Of course, and if there’s anything else you need—”

“Where’s Jeremy?” said Nedley from across the room.

“What?” said Shae

“Oh, Jeremy’s our friend who came with us. He’s…” Waverly stopped and looked around the room.

Jeremy was nowhere to be seen.

“I’m not lost,” said Jeremy. “I’m just…satisfying my curiosity.”

Jeremy looked up and down the halls with their impressive paintings and architecture that seemed to have leapt forward in time from centuries past. He had been so engrossed in it that he hadn’t even noticed he was falling behind Waverly and the others.

As it turned out, ancient architecture and beautiful art was a lot less impressive when you’d seen it five times in the past fifteen minutes and were the only being in the area. Jeremy wandered up and down the halls, searching for a sign or a network hub or a person or a guide dog, just… _something_.

Ahead of him, a door opened. _Thank god, people!_ “Hey, excuse me!” He called to the woman walking through. She didn’t look familiar, but she had a ton of weapons on her, so she was probably a guard or something. “Can you help me? I got lost and I’m looking for my friends!”

“Really…” said the woman. “What are their names?”

“Oh, thank you,” said Jeremy. “Their names are Nicole and Waverly, we got here maybe an hour ago, and I am really starting to worry.”

“Hey, no problem, cutie. We’ll—” The woman looked at something behind him. “Say, is that them?”

“Really?” Jeremy turned, and then frowned. “No, that’s just a statue of St. George. Why would you—” Something slammed into him from behind, and before Jeremy knew what was happening, he was unconscious.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you've been reading this long and you know the story of The Empire Strikes Back, you know things are about to start happening fast from this point forward. I'll say here and now that although things will get rough, it's worth it. 
> 
> We just got some stuff to get through first....


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wynonna leaves Marakej to meet up with her friends; as the crew settle in, they learn that Caspin may not be all they had hoped

Wynonna and Dolls hefted the last log over to the crude launching tower they had constructed beneath the nose of Wynonna’s fighter. According to Dolls’ calculations, if they could achieve at least seventy-five percent of maximum power before launching and pulled up immediately after ‘take-off’, they should be able to achieve sky and space before crashing into the trees on the other side of the lake.

In theory.

As the log was lifted into place by Dolls, Juan Carlo looked the ship over. “Wings look good,” he said, “so you should still be able to get off the ground with the VTOLs. Just make sure you have enough speed to clear the trees and you should be fine.”

“Right,” said Wynonna, finally laying the log down on top of the tower and releasing it with a huff. She looked across at Dolls on the other side and said, “You got this?”

Dolls nodded and arranged the last piece of the ‘tower’ before stepping back to lift-drag the ship onto it. When it was set, the ship was remarkably even and tilted slightly upward, giving enough space for the wings and takeoff engines to rotate and provide the necessary lift. Wynonna nodded once and said, “Well…guess that’s it.”

“You know what to look for?”

“Hair, skin, anything that might have fallen off his body.”

“Or…”

“I’m not digging through his fucking toilet.”

Juan Carlo shrugged. “Fair enough.”

Wynonna looked over at Dolls, who gave her a thumbs up and went to get in his pit. She glanced at Juan Carlo and said, “Look, I’m not exactly one for big goodbyes…”

“Understood,” said the man.

Wynonna sighed. “This will definitely work?”

“Worked for me…or for my original. No reason to think it won’t work for you and yours.”

“And he’ll be just like he was?”

Juan Carlo shrugged. “Might be a little stronger, faster, less inclined to consume regular food and drink, but overall the same.”

“’Less inclined to…’ What the hell does that mean?”

Juan Carlo sighed and turned his gaze on her. “He’ll be a robot, Miss Earp. His whole body will have changed into a highly sophisticated and lethal machine. Did you imagine there wouldn’t be changes to how you knew him?”

“Yeah…guess not.” Wynonna climbed up into the cockpit of the fighter. “See you around.”

“Wynonna!” Juan Carlo called. “A piece of advice when it comes to Clootie and his friends: their strongest weapon isn’t what they wield, but what they say. The longer they talk, the greater the risk. Understand?”

“So, hit them fast and hard?” Wynonna laughed grimly. “About time you started singing my song.” Wynonna closed the cockpit and triggered the startup sequence. The VTOLs caught right away, and the ship boosted off the ground and slightly backward. Wynonna adjusted the stick slightly, and seconds later they were hovering gracefully at treetop height as they had a dozen times before.

“See, boys?” she said. “Nothing to it.”

 **Sure. It’s easy to be confident after you’ve done the thing** , said Dolls.

“Well…shut up.”

**^_^**

Wynonna rolled her eyes at Dolls. As they climbed into space, a voice spoke up. “ _Wynonna…”_

“Yeah, Doc?” Doc was silent for so long that Wynonna thought he might have shut down. “Doc? You okay?”

When he spoke, his voice was full of emotion. “ _Thank you_.”

Wynonna smiled. “You got it, Doc.” She selected the nav menu and locked in a course to Caspin. “Now come on – let’s go save the others from whatever boredom they’ve lucked into.”

Waverly watched through the window as the gas miner flew upwards towards the filtration tanks on the far end of the station. Although air-conversion was a fairly standard practice for interstellar flights, the actual process of obtaining and refining air for use as fuel had always fascinated Waverly. It was more than just simply putting a lid on an empty container and selling the container to the highest bidder. The air had to be concentrated enough to be maneuvered and clean enough that absolutely no pollutants were detectable in it. That was why most gas mining took place on either sustainable but uninhabited planets or planets whose surface was volatile but had the right mix of elements in their air that when bottled would produce the necessary chemical reactions needed for spaceflight.

Frowning, Waverly turned away from the view and went back to analyzing their situation. It had been about six hours since they’d landed on Caspin, and in that time no one had seen Jeremy. At one point, Nedley got so upset with the lack of progress Shae’s forces were making that he had stormed out the door saying that he would find the kid himself. Not long after that, Nicole had left the apartment herself, saying that she was going to go check on the _Stetson_ and did Waverly want anything while she was out? Waverly had shaken her head no, and Nicole left with a blown kiss and a silent ‘I love you’ leaving her mouth.

In the following hour, Waverly had occupied her time by alternately worrying, failing to fall asleep, and reading then rejecting the available food options. In fact, in the six hours since they’d arrived, about the only meaningful thing Waverly had accomplished was utilizing the room’s heated shower to bring back some feeling of normalcy. She was just finishing toweling her hair off and enjoying the soft floral robe when she heard the door open behind her. She turned to see which of her companions was returning and saw Nicole enter with a grin. “Good news,” said the pilot. “The ship is back in fighting shape.”

“Really,” said Waverly.

“Yup. It was pretty much what Shae said – age and stress. The mechanics did a full replacement and are going over everything else just to be safe. With any luck, we’ll be out of here by tomorrow morning.”

“And what about Jeremy? He’s still missing – for almost six hours now! That is far too long for him to just be lost, you know!”

“I know, but I trust Shae. There’s no way anything bad happened to him. Heck, he probably curled up in one of the secret compartments and fell asleep while we were still on the landing pad.”

Waverly shook her head. “I don’t know, Nicole. _Something_ doesn’t feel right – did you know that there’s no web presence here?”

“What do you mean?”

“Just that. I’ve been trying to do searches for anything related to the rebellion—”

“Waves, come on. We’re way out on the fringes here, and you heard what Shae said when we arrived, all the little problems that keep cropping up—”

“I know, and I don’t care. Something is _wrong_ , Nicole. I can feel it.”

“I believe you, but what can we do about it? Even if you’re right, we’ve already done everything we can. Nedley is out looking for Jeremy; the ship is down for a few more hours, so we can’t leave; and Wynonna is probably in a hyperspace tunnel on her way here, so we can’t ask her for help either.”

Waverly fell backwards onto the bed, her hair gathering beneath her. “I just….I feel so helpess. I hate feeling that way.”

“I know, baby, but it’s fine. We’re fine.”

“…I hope you’re right.”

Nedley stood on the pad where the _Stetson_ had been, considering the possibilities. It was an old tactic that had served him well back when he was a sheriff in the B.C. (before Clootie) era. Instead of running around covering every base and coming up short for each one, he would sit (or stand) and go over all the facts as he knew them and come up with the most likely next step that happened, and go from there.

Option one: he had gone back onto the _Stetson_. While the lad could sleep through a lot and had still been recovering from Nedley shocking him earlier, this didn’t seem too likely. He had woken up on his own and seemed to be his usual cybernetic self this morning and hadn’t needed any prodding from him or the girls to get moving. Even if he had gone back in, the work being done on the _Stetson_ now would have made either him notice them or them discover him.

So: not on the _Stetson_

Option two: he had gotten lost somewhere. The boy was curious enough to explore anything and everything, and an environment like this would certainly be a maze of delights for someone of that mind. The difficulty came in tracking him down, because to the right inquisitive mind, everything was a new discovery and every turn a new adventure. Nedley didn’t like it, but it was certainly better than…

Option three: someone had taken him against his will. They were still wanted fugitives, and the price for a cyborg that had first-hand knowledge of someone like Waverly would not be cheap. No matter what glowing reviews Shae had about this place, Nedley knew that nine times out of ten, people would still be motivated by their wallets and not their hearts. If someone found Jeremy alone and he was too nervous to say the right thing…

“Okay….so think like Jeremy,” he said. He closed his eyes and turned back his interior clock. The sixty year old former sheriff and full-time smuggler went away. In his place stood an eager young man of twenty-five, intensely curious about everything around him and wanting to see and examine whatever was in front of him. Nedley turned and walked into the complex. Everything looked fresh and shiny to him. The walls were perfect white flecked with gold, and the windows were the biggest he’d ever seen. He didn’t even bother looking at the floor, he just kept following the windows to their end. When he got there, he looked back and forth and saw some paintings in a nearby hall. Art! Ah, there was something to stimulate the old synapses. Every species had their own way of expressing themselves, and even just within one species you vould get a thousand interpretations of just one shape. Multiply that by the number of shapes, and that by the number of combinations of those shapes, and that by the number of species in the galaxy that had evolved enough to manipulate shapes…

Nedley wandered down the hall, almost enjoying himself now. Here was a depiction of angels dancing across the galaxy’s arms; here was a rather risqué piece of multiple races in congress with each other; here was a statue of Saint George, the patron saint of those who fought amongst the stars; here was….

“Jeremy!” Nedley reached under the observation bench and pulled out the tiny cyborg. His eyes were flashing a wide array of colors, and Nedley couldn’t begin to imagine what they were seeing. He had folded upon himself so tightly that Nedley could pick him up and carry him if he were so inclined. “Jesus, kid…what the hell happened to you?” There was no answer, as Jeremy’s attention was entirely focused on what he was seeing in those flashes, and all other incoming date was promptly ignored. Sighing, Nedley bent over and picked the kid up, and began the journey back to the room Shae had gotten for them all.

“You found him like this?” said Waverly.

“Yeah. Kid was curled up under a bench over in the art museum.”

Nicole frowned. “The art museum? That should be the least dangerous place on here.”

The three friends stood around the compacted form of Jeremy, trying to make sense of what had happened to him. Nedley had brought him in a few minutes ago, and Nicole had quickly helped her copilot to bring him over to the couch. The pilot leaned as close as she could to him, trying to see if there was any physical reaction.

Nothing. “Beats me,” she said. “Waves, you’ve known him the longest. What do you think?”

“I don’t know. It’s almost as though everything that makes him operate just froze up…like a seizure, but for the computer part of him only.”

“Well, we are in a hospital, pretty much,” said Nicole. “I…could ask Shae to take a look.”

Waverly looked at her. “Are you sure about that?”

Nicole frowned. “…I don’t know, but…do we have a better option?”

The door chimed once. “That’s gotta be Shae,” said Nicole. “What are we doing?”

Before Wavery could answer, the entry door was sliding up. Shae strode in with a smile that faded the second she saw Jeremy. “Oh, my god,” she said. “Is your friend alright?”

“You tell us,” said Nedley. “You’re the doctor.”

Shae looked hurt by that, but didn’t say anything. She leaned close to Jeremy. “It looks like he’s gone into both shock and rigor mortis…does he have any preexisting conditions?”

“He’s…had some work done,” said Waverly. “There was an accident a few years ago. My people literally rebuilt him from the inside out to get him functional again.”

“Impressive,” said Shae. “His eyes…did you see them?”

“I did,” said Nedley. “All that flashing…like a computer that had it’s hard drive wiped.”

“What does that mean?” said Nicole.

“What was done to him, exactly?” Shae asked Waverly, ignoring Nicole’s question.

“Skeletal reconstruction with plating; muscle realignment; neurological computer enhancement,” said Waverly.

Nicole glanced sidelong at Waverly and mouthed “English please?” at her. Shae, however, seemed to understand completely. “Well, it seems whatever shocked him triggered a system-wide reset. His brain and his hard drive are relearning how to communicate with each other. He should get vocal control back soon enough, and everything else within a day or two at the most.”

“So, wait and see? That’s your medical opinion?”

Shae turned to Nedley. “Did I do something to offend, Randall?”

Nedley shrugged. “Just asking a question,” he grunted.

Shae frowned. “Then yes, that is my medical opinion of his condition, much as it would be for anyone who contracted a pesky but ultimately harmless virus.” She looked at Nicole and Waverly. “Any other concerns?” When no one said anything, Shae smiled again. “Good. In that case, may I offer you all some lunch in the atrium?”

Waverly and Nicole looked at each other, each silently asking the other the same thing. “Sure,” said Nicole after a moment. “Sounds great.”

“Wonderful,” said Shae. “Follow me.” She led the way out the door. Nedley glanced at Nicole and Nicole got the message: _Be careful. Be ready._ She nodded and followed him out the door, glancing worriedly at Waverly and Jeremy as she did so. “We’ll come back for him,” she whispered to Waverly. “No matter what, no one’s left behind. Okay?”

Waverly nodded, and Nicole escorted her down the hall, catching up with Shae and Nedley. “I’m actually kind of glad you all stopped by,” Shae was saying. “Most of the time it’s just all business, day in and day out. Doesn’t leave much time for socializing, especially this far out.”

“What do you do for protection?” asked Waverly. “I’ve seen the guards, but not much in the way of stellar or even aerial defenses.”

“Caught that, did you?” said Shae, “It’s true, we are pretty lightly defended. The majority of our vehicles are just for mining and medical use. Nothing much we can do if someone decides they want to bomb us from orbit.”

“That’s horrible,” said Nicole.

“It’s been rough,” said Shae, “but I’ve actually been talking to some people. If everything works out the way I hope, than we should all be taken care of for a long time. Through here.” Shae stood in front of a closed door and opened it, allowing her guests through first. Nicole smiled her thanks and—

“Welcome,” said a gravelly voice in front of them. “We’re so glad you could make the time to join us.”

Nicole’s voice died in her throat.

At the far end of the immense dining table sat Robert Del Ray, in all his militaristic glory. Seated next to him, a roll in one hand and her dual pistol in another, was Rosita. 

“Sorry about your droid, babe,” said Rosita. “Didn’t want to take the chance that he’d recognize me and ruin the surprise.” She laughed in her throat and turned to Del Rey. “Told you I’d find them.”

“You did, my angel. I apologize profusely.” He raised a glass of wine first to her and then towards Nicole and Waverly. “Sit down, please.”

Nicole looked to her right and saw Shae with a defeated and shameful look on her face. “Shae…” she said.

“I didn’t have a choice,” Shae said. “She arrived right as you all did and called him almost immediately.” The doctor looked at Nicole,and Nicole saw the sorrow and regret in her eyes, along with the desire for her to understand and forgive her. “I’m sorry.”

Nicole let out a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding. “I’m sorry, too.” She led Waverly and Nedley into the room and all sat opposite Del Rey and Rosita.

“Now, then,” said Del Rey, finishing his drink and leaning forward. “I have a number of questions, but first and foremost…where. Is. Wynonna. Earp.”


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dolls detects trouble; Nicole faces down Del Rey; Shae faces the consequences of her actions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was a bit tricky to write. Subject aside, I kept going back and forth over whose point of view was best for a scene. Originally, I intended to have Nicole and Nedley both featured as p.o.v.s, but in writing their sections both worked better as seen by Waverly.
> 
> More below

“Hold up,” said Dolls. “Something’s wrong.”

“You picked now to tell me that?” said Wynonna. They were en route to Caspin and were scheduled to arrive in the next couple hours. “The middle of a jump is not the time for the words ‘something’s wrong’.”

“This is important, Wynonna.”

Wynonna sighed dramatically. “ _Fine._ What’s so important? Did Jeremy get closer to being a singularity? Did Nicole pop the question to Waverly? Actually, don’t tell me if it’s that one.’

“Caspin is dead.”

Despite the tightness of the ship, Wynonna shifted around to look at the droid in his socket, even though his voice was effectively all around her. “Dead? Dead like _dead-_ dead?”

“No, the planet is still putting out a locator signal, but there’s been no communications offworld for at least the past forty minutes – possibly longer.”

_No.._. “You think they caught up with them? Doc?”

“ _Certainly what it sounds like, Wynonna._ ”

Wynonna got her game-face on and rechecked the time to destination on the nav map. _Ninety minutes…_ “Well, boys…I did say we’d be rescuing them from boredom.”

“Princess?” said Nedley from the lone bench in the room. “You doing alright?”

Waverly shrugged slightly and continued leaning against the wall of the cell they had found themselves thrown into. It had been at least an hour since they discovered Shae’s betrayal. All of them had remained steadfastly silent at Del Rey’s questions through the meal. To all appearances, he took their stubbornness in stride, but Waverly knew his rage must have been building up. After a while, Del Rey declared lunch over and had her and Nedley sent to a cell and Nicole…elsewhere.

_At least they brought Jeremy to us_ , thought Wavery dryly. Now they were just waiting, either for their own personal ‘interrogation’, or for Del Rey to just shoot them all and get it over with. Nedley got up from the bench in the middle of the room and walked over to her. “Listen, I know it looks bad, but we’ve gotten out of tighter scrapes than this. We just gotta put our heads together, come up with a plan—”

“A plan?” Waverly said. “They have Nicole. Any plan we make will need to include her in it, except we don’t know where she is or what condition she’s even in.”

“Well, what about Jeremy?” said Nedley. “He still needs a little work, right?”

Waverly glanced over and saw Jeremy on the floor net to the bench, his limbs still locked tightly together and his eyes still flashing as they realigned with his network. She got up and went over to him. “Oh, Jeremy…” She shook her head sadly and looked to Nedley. “Why is this happening?”

“Shae…she’s got a big heart, really. She just wants to keep those she cares about safe.”

Waverly’s sadness was replaced by a shot of anger. “Safe? How is this safe? We’re in here and Nicole is…with Del Rey and Rosita, and who knows what they’re doing to her.”

“And what do you think she’d want us to be doing? Worrying about her, or getting ready to break out of this trap?”

Waverly sighed, then looked over at Jeremy. “Come on; help me get him onto the bench.”

“What’s the worst pain you’ve ever experienced?”

Del Rey said the words conversationally, as though he didn’t have the annoying pilot strapped to an interrogation chair with all manner of toys at his disposal. He strolled around the room, picking at the many instruments lining the walls. _The thing about hospitals_ , he mused. _They’re as good at causing pain as they are curing it…if they’re of a mind._

The pilot – Haught – remained as tight-lipped as she had been during their meal. “Well?”

Haught sighed. “Off the top of my head? I’ve got this killer itch on my lower back that’s been bugging me all day. Any chance you got some ointment to take care of that?”

Del Rey grinned at her spirit. “You’re funny. I like that. Do you wanna hear a joke?”

Haught’s face twisted in confusion. “Okay…”

“Wynonna Earp.”

After a moment of silence, Haught finally asked, “Okay, what’s the punchline?”

“No, no, no – remember your early lessons. ‘Where’s’ the punchline?”

Haught sighed in annoyance. “Fine. _Where’s_ the punchline?”

“Exactly what I’d like to know. You see, I’ve been trying to find you bitches for much longer than I care to admit, and every time I get close to you, you all slip away somehow. Either my station blows up, or some asteroids get in the way, or some rude flyer shoves me out of the way and into space – ah, you remember that.”

Haught’s eyes had gone wide as he spoke that last, but she recovered. “Fine, so this is personal. You tried to kill my friend, I stopped you, and now you want to kill us both.”

Del Rey shrugged. “Personal and business, technically, but let’s not split hairs….especially when they’re as lovely as yours.” He ran a hand through her hair, and the woman made a pointless effort to pull away. He raised the hand to his nose and took a sniff. “Ah…vanilla. So reliable….yet so boring.”

Haught fought against the restraints. “Let me out of these restraints. I’ll show you how boring I can be.”

“Some other time. Maybe at our next luncheon. For now, though….where is she?”

“Up your ass.”

Del Rey grinned. “Now _that_ would make things a little more interesting, all other factors considered. But…” He turned around and made a show of checking himself. “No Earp bitch. Care to try again?”

“Bite me.”

Del Rey nodded, and quickly leaned in to Haught and clamped his mouth on her shoulder. She screamed, and he pulled back slowly, lifting a portion of the skin with him. Her screams changed to panicked grunts, then, “I don’t know! I don’t know where she is! None of us do!”

Del Rey released his hold and Haught gasped in pain. Her shoulder had a bleeding bite mark on it, but was mostly intact. Haught tried to examine her shoulder, but what little of it she could see was covered in a coat of red. “You’re an animal.”

“What, did you think I was plant-based?” He laughed at his own joke and then grew serious again. “Explain.”

“We….we haven’t spoken to her since Kholod. We were supposed to meet with the fleet eventually, but…”

Del Rey waved his hand, urging her to continue. “Very well; what about your fleet? Where are they?”

“They broadcast a signal every twelve hours on three separate channels for five minutes. Put the data together, find the location.”

Del Rey smiled. “Thank you, Miss Haught. This has been most entertaining.” Haught started to relax, and then Del Rey was behind her and yanking her hair back hard. “I always enjoy a good work of fiction, after all. Now…”

Del Rey gestured, and an ancient medical cart flew towards him. Another flex, and the needles and miniature saws and blades on it sprang to life. He turned back to Haught and moved her chair closer to the spinning tools. “…shall we try a different genre? I’m thinking biographical.”

Shae pace back and forth outside the surgical theater. Any of a dozen patients (though thankfully none with immediate surgical needs) could have been in there right now, but instead it was being used to torture a good (if occasionally reckless) woman.

Beside her, the woman who had started all this – the bounty hunter, Rosita – sat against the wall, her eyes closed as she listened to the screams, a soft smile present on her face. Shae should have had her escorted off the station the second she had realized who it was that had landed, but by then it was too late – Del Rey had already been summoned, and her only choice was to either cooperate with her former wife’s arrest or join her in a cell and lose everything she had built here…and risk the lives of its inhabitants in so doing.

The door slid open, and Shae had the briefest glimpse of an injured Nicole before Del Rey was filling the doorway. “She’s on her way here,” he declared. He turned to one of the troopers he had brought with him. “Call Gardner. Tell him to move around to the far side of the planet as fast as possible. We don’t want Earp suspecting anything when she arrives.”

“Yes, lord,” said the trooper, heading off to fulfill his orders.

As soon as he was gone, Shae moved in. “Lord Del Rey—”

“Angel,” said Del Rey, moving towards the dark-haired woman beside the room’s entrance.

“Lover,” said Rosita coolly. “Can I have my toy now?”

_Toy?_ thought Shae. Del Rey shook his head. “Not yet. We still need her to bring Earp in. Once we know she’s here, then you can take yours.”

Shae blanched as she realized they were talking about Nicole. “Lord Del Rey, I was given to understand you were only interested in one person, and the rest would be staying here under my supervision.”

Rosita smiled. “Sadly, your captain has earned the ire of someone much more powerful than you, Doctor. She’ll be leaving with me.”

“But…” Shae stopped and then started again with more confidence. “And what about the sheriff and the princess?”

Del Rey seemed to consider this. “Well, they are both escaped prisoners. I suppose a lifetime in prison would suffice.”

Rosita looked at him. “Seems a little easy…”

“Really?” laughed Del Rey. “Imprisoned for life here, with the person who was responsible for Haught’s capture taking care of them?”

Astonishingly, Rosita smiled. “I stand corrected.” Her and Del Rey boarded a nearby lift. “Come on. I found something you might want to take a look at. It’s very…” She tossed a grin at Shae. “…cool.”

The lift doors slid shut, and Shae turned on her heel and went back to the theater. The door opened, and there she saw a bloodied and bruised Nicole coming around. “Nicole….”

Hearing her name, Nicole looked toward the entrance. “Shae?” she said weakly.

Shae sighed and went in, gathering materials. “Sit down,” she said. “Let’s get you patched up.”

Nicole leaned back but kept her eyes on Shae as she worked. “Why, Shae?”

Shae knew what she was asking, but she just worked on…possibly because she herself didn’t know.

“Okay,” said Waverly. “Hopefully this does something.”

She waited, Jeremy’s head in her lap, as data continued streaming across his eyes. Seconds later, the stream had stopped and his eyes were blinking rapidly. Nedley leaned in behind her and said, “Is that good news?”

“If we’re lucky.” The blinking stopped, and Jeremy looked around, then above him at Waverly. “Uh…hi, Waverly. What’s…what’s happening?”

“You took a shock to your system that forced you to reboot.”

“You’ve been out for some time, son,” said Nedley. “How are you feeling?”

"Uh…not great, but not horrible. Things are a little fuzzy.”

“Can you walk?” asked Waverly.

“Yeah, sure,” He moved to sit up and fell off the bench. “Okay,” he said from his position on the floor. “That was weird.” His legs flexed beneath him as though they were kicking at something. “Guys? Am I pushing at the floor?”

“No…”said Waverly. “You’re kicking the air with your legs.”

“Okay, and am I on your left or right?"

“Our right. Why?”

“Oh, just because I’ve been telling my arms to move for the past minute and trying to face you guys to my right which is apparently actually my left.”

“Wait, so…your orientation is off?”

“Or I’m drunk, but I like to think it’s the more healthy option.”

“How is you not knowing your left from your right healthy?” said Nedley.

“Not sure, but I know I’ll have a good reason soon. Help?”

Waverly sighed and picked up her friend just as the door to the cell opened. Shae entered first, and behind her was—

“Nicole!” Waverly let go of Jeremy and rushed over to her pilot. Nicole almost fell onto her, and Waverly guided her over to the bench and laid her down on it. Nedley, meanwhile, was seething at Shae. “What the hell did you do to her?”

“Patched her up as best I could,” said Shae. “Del Rey didn’t hold back any…or if he did, then I don’t want to be around when he doesn’t.”

“Oh, is that supposed to make us feel sorry for you?” shouted Waverly. “Nicole trusted you, and you just—”

“You said it yourself, Waverly. We don’t have any weapons, not for a sustained attack. I have to think of everyone here and save as many as I can…and sometimes that means making a tough choice.”

Nedley snorted. “Tough choice. Funny way of putting it..”

Shae looked at the judgmental faces around her. “Look, I’ve spoken to Del Rey. Nicole is going with that bounty hunter. I couldn’t do anything about that without her shooting me, but you two…and I guess the droid…are staying here.”

“No, thanks,” said Waverly.

“Del Rey said you’d say that.”

“Did he happen to also say why he’s doing this? Why he wants us all dead and gone?”

“He doesn’t care if you three are alive, dead, or in a black hole. He only cares about one person, and she’s supposedly on her way here now.”

On the bench, Nicole rose slightly and coughed. “Wynonna…”

Shae nodded, and the others finally grasped the full truth of their situation. “Bait, meet trap,” said Nedley.

“I really am sorry about all of this,” said Shae. “I wish I could have done it another way, but I have to think of everyone; not just people I care about.” She turned to leave.

“Shae…” called Nicole. Shae stopped and turned back to her former lover. “When you became a doctor, wasn’t there some sort of rule you always had to follow?”

“Nicole…”

“What was it again?”

Shae looked at the floor. “Do no harm.”

Nicole nodded. “Think you need to work on that part.” She leaned back against Waverly. Shae stood there, trying to come up with some reason or excuse, but then she left, the door locking once more behind her.

Waverly looked down at the head in her lap. “Still a charmer, I see.”

“I got you nursing me back to health, don’t I?” Nicole laughed slightly, and the laugh turned into a coughing fit.

Waverly frowned and laid a finger on Nicole’s lips. “Shush,” she said. “Don’t talk. Just rest.”

She did. For a while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't judge Shae too harshly. She thought she was getting a good deal for everyone. It's hardly her fault if Del Rey and Rosita are lying liars .
> 
> (No, it's not my fault either -- hey, put those pitchforks down! Put....)
> 
> Anyway, as much bad as happened, know that the next chapter has some of my best writing and one of the worst situations I could put someone in. Sorry in advance, but sometimes characters have to....well, you'll see. Just stay with us and keep reading.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tragedy strikes as Del Rey and his forces prepare for Wynonna's arrival

Del Rey looked around at the equipment surrounding him. “You’d think a hospital would have a cleaner space for equipment like this,” he observed.

“From what I gather, they don’t really use this much,” said Rosita. “Even these days, no one wants to take the risk of being put into stasis and having that kill them instead of whatever’s eating them up on the inside.”

Del Rey nodded. In a sense, it was the fraternal twin of everything Clootie worked towards – freeze yourself, and you could technically live forever. On the other hand, you could end up a frozen corpsicle just taking up space in someone’s spare room. A door opened behind him, and the familiar-by-now smell of Doctor Pressman entered his nostrils. “The….fugitives are all in custody on the main level, Lord Del Rey.”

There was a brief hint of rebellion in her voice, but it left quickly. “This equipment,” he said, gesturing at the freeze lab around him. “It’s still active, yes?”

Pressman hesitated. “It…is, I suppose, but we haven’t used it for years. Not on people, at any rate?”

“And what, pray tell, _do_ you use it on?”

“Volatile or sensitive cargo that needs to be handled and transported with care. Sir, I’m afraid I don’t—”

Del Rey grinned. “Perfect. Just perfect.”

“Sir?” she said.

“Well, just think – what cargo is more volatile than an Earp?”

Pressman grew pale at what he was suggesting. “Sir….forgive me, but that’s insane. If you put her in here, it’s as likely to kill her as not.”

“No need to worry, Doctor. We’ll do this scientifically, with a test of the machine beforehand.”

“A test, sir?”

“Exactly.”

Pressman gulped. “And….who would be testing it, sir?”

Nicole woke up slowly. There was a pain in her back, her neck was sore. and her shoulder felt like it was on fire. Her head was pounding, and for a second she could not for the life of her remember what she’d been doing or why it would feel that way.

“How are you feeling?” a voice above her asked. All she could see was a bright light, and she wondered for a second if she had died. Then the light was blocked by Waverly’s concerned face. Nicole pushed herself into a sitting position and saw that they were in a roomy if sparse cell, somewhere deep within Caspin Station.

_Del Rey…he was asking about Wynonna…and…_

Nicole shuddered. She remembered, alright. “How long have I been out?” she asked.

“Couple hours, give or take,” said Nedley. “They didn’t see fit to give us a clock when they threw us in here.”

“Are you alright?” Waverly asked again.

Nicole stood up slowly, and Waverly rose with her in case she fell. Slowly, Nicole flexed her muscles, stretching to see if anything pained her so much that it would indicate a broken bone or dislocated limb. Nothing screamed in protest, so she looked at the shoulder Del Rey had decided to turn into an afternoon snack. Some of the skin was rubbed raw and she would have a scar there in a month or so, but overall she was in surprisingly decent shape.

“Not too bad, I think,” said Nicole. “The worst is the shoulder, but even that’s mostly cosmetic. Shae did a pretty good job with it.”

Waverly scowled. “Shae can take a trip outside an airlock without wearing a space suit,” she spat. “She—”

“—fixed my wound the best she could and had nothing to do with causing it, outside of trying to keep her city from being blown the hell away. Take it easy on her,” argued Nicole.

Waverly looked at her with something like admiration. “You have that much faith in her?”

Nicole shrugged. “She’s doing the best she can with what little she has.” She grinned and put a hand behind Waverly’s ear, stroking some loose hair back. “Slightly reminds me of a certain princess I know.”

Waverly closed her eyes and hugged Nicole, tucking herself under Nicole’s chin. “You saying I should forgive her?”

“I’m saying that if I was being threatened and you had to do something awful to keep me safe, you’d do it…right?”

Waverly sighed. “Why can’t you be wrong sometimes?”

“Oh, I wish I was wrong this time. It would make things a lot simpler.”

Waverly laughed and held Nicole. “Just promise me that we’ll be able to leave soon.”

“Oh, babe…” Nicole sighed and held her. “I really wish I could.”

“You can’t even lie to me?” Waverly whined.

“Never.”

“Company’s coming,” said Nedley from beside the door. The sheriff drew back and positioned himself in front of Nicole and Waverly. The door opened, and a somber-looking Shae entered the room. She didn’t quite meet anyone’s eye, but she looked at Nicole and said, “Are you okay?”

“No….but I’ll survive.”

“Yeah…you’re a survivor, aren’t you?” Shae closed her eyes, and when she opened them she seemed almost to be pronouncing a death sentence. “You all need to follow me. They…aren’t giving me a choice.”

“Maybe you should have trusted us a little more, then,” said Waverly coldly. At the stricken look on Shae’s face, her tone softened and she added. “I’m—”

“No,” said Shae. “Don’t apologize. You’re right, of course.” Shae seemed about to weep, but instead she took a breath and said, “Come.”

Reluctantly, Nicole got up from the bench. Waverly rose with her, and the pair waited for Nedley to cross behind them and pick up Jeremy. The cyborg tried to protest being carried like a child but was roundly ignored. Once he had been lifted in Nedley’s arms, the group turned as one to Shae. Nicole nodded at her, and Shae said, “This way.”

Waiting for them in the main hallway were four well-armed Serpenten troopers. One of them gestured with his gun at Shae, and it took everything Nicole had and a tightening of Waverly’s grip not to begin whaling on the bastard. Shae nodded at the trooper, but the trooper held up a finger to Shae. He then brought out four pairs of cuffs. The trooper bound Nicole’s hands behind her, and then did the same to Waverly. The trooper hesitated briefly when he came to Nedley, who still had Jeremy in both hands. After a second, he said, “Extend your arms.”

“Piss off,” said Nedley.

“It’s fine,” said Shae. “Del Rey wants us all, the boy can’t walk, and so long as the sheriff is carrying him, he can’t cause trouble.” The trooper glared at Shae, and Shae glared right back. Finally, deciding it wasn’t worth it, the trooper pointed down the hall. Shae nodded and led them all out of the prison block and down one stark white corridor after another. They walked for ten minutes until they had reached what seemed to be an old and abandoned section of the hospital area. Shae took them down three more corridors and finally stopped outside a room with several keep out signs in various languages and dialects posted next to it, along with two more troopers. Shae ignored both of them and entered a code on the keypad next to the door.

The door whooshed open, and Shae entered. Nicole followed and saw that they were now in a multi-level operating theater. Most of the traditional operating equipment had been cleared out. At the bottom was a large pod about eight feet tall. The pod was attached to some machinery above it, and in front of the machines stood Del Rey and Rosita, both grinning. Nicole looked closer and saw that the machinery Del Rey was next to was actually on the second level of the room, with the pod being placed on the first….and right in front of them.

Nicole swallowed nervously and turned to her ex-wife. “Shae….what’s happening?”

Shae finally looked her in the eye, and Nicole wished she hadn’t; if she hadn’t, Nicole wouldn’t have to witness the pain and regret in Shae’s eyes. “They’re putting you into cryogenic stasis,” Shae said.

From the back of the group, Jeremy said, “Really? You guys perfected that? Cool!”

“No,” said Shae, as two more troopers appeared and stepped close to Nicole. Understanding filled Nicole, and Shae nodded sadly.

“Fuck _that!_ ” sceamed Waverly. She launched herself at Shae and Shae was immediately sprawled across the floor, letting out a cry as she landed. Waverly then turned her attention to the nearest trooper and was trying to steal his blaster from him. The trooper held onto the gun as tightly as he could, but Waverly persistently kept grabbing at it. Jeremy yelled out asking what was happening, and before she knew it, Nicole had her handcuffed arms around Waverly, pulling her back. “Baby, stop! Please!”

“No!” said Waverly. “We can take these assholes, just—”

“No, Waves, please, just stop!” With one final tug, Nicole pulled Waverly free. The trooper's gun went flying, and he grabbed at it, aiming it at both of them.

“No,” declared Del Rey from above. The trooper looked up at him as if to say _Really?_ , but Del Rey shook his head. The trooper resumed his stance.

That left Waverly, who was still fighting like mad to get free of Nicole. “Let me go, Nicole!” she screamed. “I swear, I will fight _you_ if I have to, but—”

“Waves, please…” said Nicole, and she could feel tears forming in her eyes. Waverly stopped struggling and rotated herself so she was facing Nicole.

“We….I can’t….this…” Waverly’s breath hitched as she tried to find the right words to encompass everything she was feeling.

“I know,” said Nicole. She hugged Waverly to her chest, and the young woman worked her arms over Nicole’s head to hug her back.

“I love you,” said Waverly.

“I know.”

“We…” she tried again, and Nicole cut her off with the most passionate kiss she had ever given anyone. It was a kiss that said “I love you” and one that said “I’m sorry”. It spoke of lost time and stolen moments. It spoke of precious memories and secret promises. It was a kiss Nicole never wanted to have end.

“That’s enough,” said Del Rey. Two pairs of hands grabbed Nicole and roughly hauled her up the stairs. She kept her gaze focused on Waverly, who seemed about to break. “Waves, listen to me. You are the strongest person I have ever met—”

“No, I’m not!” Waverly cried, tears already spilling down her cheeks. “Not without you!”

“Yes! Yes, you are! You’re strong and beautiful and kind to people when you don’t even have to be! You’re everything I could have wanted and so much more than I deserve!” As they reached the top, Nicole looked to her right and saw Shae at the edge of the platform with Del Rey keeping a firm grip on her shoulder as Rosita grinned hungrily. A glance at Nicole told the smuggler that she wanted to stop what was happening and take it all back, but no longer could.

Nicole smiled weakly and nodded back at her that it was fine, then she returned her attention to the tiny brunette that had become her everything. “Listen, don’t worry about me. People have lived through this before—” A hard shove from behind pushed her into the already steaming chamber. “I swear, whatever happens, we _will_ be together again. Just get out of here—”

“Enough talk,” said Del Rey. He nodded to the man operating the controls. “Do it.”

Nicole’s eyes widened; she had only seconds. “Find Wynonna, Waves!” she shouted. “Find her and stay with her! She’s your—”

There was a huge blast of steam, and Waverly struggled to see through it. Fans above the chamber turned on as liquid nitrogen poured into it, covering Nicole and muting her final words. Everyone in the room was silent as the steam cleared, and when it did, Waverly could only see a vague shape where Nicole had been standing. Giant mechanical tongs reached down from the ceiling and pulled it out of the chamber. When the tongs released the shape, a separate mechanism moved in to attach several antigrav devices to it as Del Rey and Shae waited expectantly. Once the machinery had finished operating, Shae stepped forward and attached a fair-sized device to the side of the object. As she did, the object turned on its axis, rotating enough for them all to see the other side of it.

Nicole’s face was tilted upwards, her mouth caught in a silent scream. Her hair was matted down the sides of her face. In a way, she looked almost beautiful….but in a more realistic way, she looked as though she was in the worst pain imaginable.

“Well then, Doctor Pressman,” sneered Del Rey, and Waverly had never in her life wanted to kill two people so badly. “Attend your ‘patient’.”

Shae looked at Del Rey as if he was something that had just crawled up out of the nearest toilet, but did as she was asked. She entered a code on the device and a steady beeping came from it. “She’s alive…and in perfect stasis.” She examined Nicole’s face, and her hand inched forward as though to caress her unreachable cheek.

“Don’t you touch her!” screamed Waverly, and Shae’s hand jerked back. “You did this to her, you bitch, so _don’t you touch her!_ ”

For her part, Shae looked properly ashamed. _Not nearly enough_ , thought Waverly savagely. Behind the ‘doctor’, Del Rey snickered at Waverly’s outburst. “You girls are wild,” he said with a grin. “Sure you don’t wanna spend a night with me?”

“Sir!” said one of the troopers, before either of the women could react. “A patrol spotted Earp’s ship entering the atmosphere.”

“About time,” said Del Rey. He turned to Rosita and took her hand, kissing it. “You’re all set?”

“Very. Thank you, Robert.” The bounty hunter withdrew her hand and wrapped her arms around Del Rey, kissing him full on the mouth. When she pulled back, he looked as though he’d been rewarded with chip-free immortality. He clapped his hands and said, “Well! This has been fun, but I have another appointment due any moment, so…” He waved his hands and bowed to Waverly. “Princess…always a pleasure. Miss Haught…” He turned and bowed low, his forehead nearly colliding with Nicole’s frozen body. “Until we meet again…or not.”

“Move it,” said one of the troopers guarding Waverly and Nedley and the still semi-immobile Jeremy. As they began to move, Rosita passed by with Nicole floating close behind. “How could you?” asked Waverly, and Rosita stopped. She didn’t say anything but just looked coolly at Waverly, inviting her to continue. “She was a good person. Hell, she was your _friend—_ ”

“Friend? Really? What gave you that idea?”

“You….you had been with her! Even if it didn’t work out, that’s hardly a reason to do _that_!”

Rosita chuckled. “Oh, you’re a romantic. That’s sweet. Tell me something, kid…” Rosita leaned close. “What about me makes you think I would actually _care_ about some ginger butch smuggler?” Shocked, Waverly’s mouth moved without making sound, and Rosita smiled. “Thought so. See you in hell, kid.”

Laughing, Rosita moved off, leaving Waverly staring after her and her prize.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has the first of three sections I was so eager to write that I wrote it weeks ago. Glad I was able to put the freezing in almost entirely unchanged. Some caveats, though -- first, I know everyone wants to kill me for doing that. All I can say is blame George Lucas -- he put Han in carbonite, which means I need to do something similar. It'll be worth it in the end, you'll see.
> 
> Second, the chapter was originally a little longer, but then I realized the small bit that would have Wynonna worked better in the next chapter. 
> 
> Amyway, not too much left until the end! PLEASE stay tuned!


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wynonna and Dolls arrive at Caspin at last; Shae chooses a side; Rosita encounters resistance.

_Pretty fancy sight, if that’s your thing_ , thought Wynonna as she approached Caspin City. The whole thing hung in the clouds invitingly, looking like heaven if it was designed by a bunch of high-rent architects commissioned by every quadrillionaire in the galaxy. “Dolls, you get anyone in flight control yet?”

“Not yet. Even if they were all busy, there’d still be backup systems.”

“ _Safe bet the villains of our story are already here, then_ ,” put in Doc. “ _How we playing this?_ ”

“First things first….any other ships in the area?”

There was a pause while Dolls scanned the surrounding piece of sky. “Nothing I’m picking up, at least not close enough to worry us.”

“ _What about the Stetson?_ ”

Another pause. “Located near the back of the station. Powered down, but intact.”

“Okay, here’s the plan, then – find a spot to land, find the girls, kill anything in our way.”

“ _And what if there are revenants in there?_ ”

Wynonna grinned and patted Peacemaker. “Then we double-super kill them.”

“Heads up – open landing pad ahead. Marking it.”

“Thanks, D….D-X…whatever, thanks.” Wynonna shook her head. “Why do both of you have names starting with the same letter?”

“ _Technically, my name starts with J._ ”

“And I don’t have a name at all, just a designation and model number.”

Wynonna groaned internally. “I need new friends.” She shook her head and focused. “Heading in.”

_Gone_.

That was the only thing echoing in Waverly’s mind, that one word that was so small and yet encompassed so much.

_Gone. Nicole’s gone._

They were being led through the station again. Maybe back to the holding area they’d been in, maybe to the docking area for execution, maybe to Shae’s private suite – it didn’t matter, because Nicole was—

“She’s not gone,” Nedley whispered into her ear.

Waverly turned her head slightly to face him. “What are you talking about? You saw what they did to her, what that—”

“And I heard what Shae said. She’s alive. Maybe not in the best condition, but—”

“Quiet, prisoner!” The guard marching alongside them cuffed Nedley in the head, and he stumbled, nearly dropping Jeremy.

“What’s going on?” Shae came back from the front, where she’d been leading their group.

“Not your concern,” said the guard. “Get back up front.”

“You can not talk to me like that,” Shae said. “I run this station. You idiots wouldn’t even be here if I hadn’t let that bounty hunter aboard.”

The guard laughed. “Yeah, but you did, so who’s the bigger idiot?”

“Enough,” said the leader from ahead. “Cuff her, too.”

“Wait, what?” Shae protested. “I had a deal with Del Rey, dammit!”

“Deals changed, whore. It happens.” Roughly, the leader slapped some cuffs on Shae’s hands as well, trapping her hands in front of her. “Let’s get moving.”

The group started back up, and Waverly raised an eyebrow to Shae. “Welcome to the back row club.”

Amazingly, Shae smiled. “Thanks, but the club is ending soon.” She held her wristpad out to Waverly. “How long are your fingers?”

“What?”

“Type out what I tell you, and don’t mess it up. C-Q-1-X-D….”

Waverly glanced at Nedley, and the sheriff nodded enthusiastically. Waverly sighed in disgust and said, “If this is another trap…”

“It isn’t, I swear.”

“Sure,” said Waverly skeptically. “What were those characters again?”

From the landing pad, Wynonna entered one long hall after another. Everywhere she went was eerily quiet and empty of people. _It’s like someone screamed “Raid” and everyone bolted before the cops could show_.

Moving as quickly and quietly as she could, Wynonna ran up to the junction for the next hallway. When no one leapt out to surprise her, she whistled. Dolls came up behind her, scanning behind them for anyone that might be hoping to get the drop on them.

“I don’t like this,” said Dolls. “Middle of the workday, there should be someone around here.”

“You kidding? Fewer people means fewer witnesses.”

“Hold up.” Dolls laid a hand on her shoulder and gestured for her to be quiet. He pulled her back the way they’d come and into a little alcove. Seconds later, some bounty hunter who looked vaguely familiar passed the entrance. Behind her was a large block of ice, being pulled with antigravity tethers.

“Captain Haught.” said Dolls.

“Huh?”

“Captain Haught is in that,”

Wynonna looked at the droid. “Are you sure?” Dolls moved forward and turned left, following the bounty hunter. “Okay, you’re sure.” Wynonna got up and moved after him.

A blast from a rifle hit the wall just near her head. Wynonna hit the floor and pulled out Peacemaker, letting a few shots fly in the direction the shots had come from. She waited a second and heard someone laughing. “Wow, great aim…I got hit exactly zero times. Did you _ever_ pay attention when Daddy was teaching your lazy ass how to shoot?”

“Nah, I was too busy imagining your corpse in my future!” shouted Wynonna before letting off two more blasts while she moved to cover.

“Oh…wow, that’s painful, Wynonna. Really.” Wynonna looked around for Dolls and saw him a little further up the hall. She raised her gun and signaled for him to move. He nodded, and she started firing.

“You know,” said the voice, “this could be over sooner if you just—” The voice was cut off by something, and Wynonna rushed forward. She heard the voice say, “Fuck this” and a blast of white light filled the corridor. When it cleared, the hunter was gone.

“Dammit!” Wynonna screamed. She ran ahead but the corridor was empty. “Can you track her?”

“Two seconds.” Dolls analyzed the area where the woman had stood and said, “Okay. Got enough of her to pick up her trail, but…”

“What but?”

“I also got her path for where she’s been. That might mean…”

“Del Rey.” Wynonna grunted with frustration. On the one hand, saving Nicole and icing the bitch who shot at her would be _really_ satisfying. On the other hand….

“Okay, you track her down, stop her from taking off. Do whatever it takes.”

“And you?”

“Me?” Wynonna grinned and lifted Peacemaker. “I’m gonna see about making some peace with a royal asshole.”

It had been ten minutes since Waverly had typed that long code into Shae’s wristpad. In that time, they’d been marched down several more corridors, then backtracked and rerouted twice more due to faulty systems or doors that refused to open.

By now, even the leader was grumbling. “This is insane,” he was saying. “I thought this place was supposed to be cutting-edge.”

“It’s a very old facility,” Shae said by way of explanation. “Sometimes, problems just pop up out of nowhere.”

“Oh, is that—” A laser blast cut off the leader by blowing a hole through his head. The other guards raised their weapons and aimed. The burly one who had hit Nedley shouted, “Come out now! This facility is under the domain of the Serpenten military, enforcers of the church of Clootie.

Doors opened all along the hall they were in, and twenty armed guards came out, surrounding their captors and outnumbering them five to a man. The church men were taken away as one of the city guards approached to unlock all their restraints.

“We got your message,” said the young man.

“Good,” said Shae. “The church has exceeded their mandate and taken over. We need to evacuate the station as quickly and quietly as possible. Gather everyone in the main hangar and get them out of here.”

“What about you?” said the man.

“We need to save someone else.” The soldier nodded and unlocked Waverly’s cuffs at last before running off to do as he was told. Shae looked around her and said, “Okay, the—”

Waverly’s fist was moving before she knew it. It connected with Shae’s nose and sent her backwards. “You _bitch!_ ” screamed Waverly. “Do you seriously think we’re going to trust you? That we’re going to let you help—”

“ _I loved her too!”_ shouted Shae from the floor. “I never wanted those bastards here! The only thing I ever wanted here fell right into my lap both times it came, and both times it wanted nothing to do with me!’

“Wait…” said Nedley. “Do you mean—”

“What, you think we couldn’t have faked a marriage certificate? Please.” Shae slowly got up from the floor. “I saw you both come in here and the second I saw that red hair bouncing down my halls, that was it. I knew you wouldn’t be staying here too long, but you still needed a cover, so I thought…”

“You thought you’d say you were married?” said Waverly. “Do you even realize—”

“Of course I do,” said Shae. “I never expected her to stay or to want more to do with me, but Nicole…she’s….”

“A good person,” said Waverly.

“The best person,” corrected Shae, and Waverly had to agree. “When Del Rey found the machine I tried to convince him not to use it on her, but…well, if you’ve ever been alone with him, you’ll understand how dangerous saying no to him can be.”

Waverly nodded. She knew, alright.

“Well,” said Nedley. “That’s all well and good, but Nicole is still being taken to that nutty bitch’s ship, so why are we still here?”

“You said she was still alive,” said Waverly, holding up a hand. “Does that mean….”

“…that we can bring her back?” said Shae. “Yes, but it has to be done carefully. Bringing someone out of cryo too fast….well, the consequences can vary, but generally, ‘not good’ covers it.”

“Good enough for me,” said Nedley, putting Jeremy down. “Kid, can you walk yet?”

“Uhhhh…” Jeremy took a few experimental steps. “Kinda. I just have to remember that left is right and right is left.”

“Well then,” said Nedley, bending over to grab the guard rifles and pass them out to Shae and Waverly. “Shall we go save the woman we all apparently love in our own way?”

Waverly took the rifle, checked its charge, and made sure the lethality setting was set for kill. “Fuck, yeah,” she said. Shae nodded.

“Well, alright then.” Nedley pumped his own rifle. “Let’s go.”

Not long after her battle with Wynonna, Rosita emerged onto the landing pad holding her beloved _Legacy_. She moved her finger along an invisible line only visible in her tech-vision, and the loading door to the ship opened. Making sure she was synced up to the tethers, she said, “Cargo Bay, southeast corner.” Obediently, the tethers began moving the frozen smuggler to the desired location.

Rosita nodded and clicked another tool. The bay doors began sliding closed, and Rosita ducked in just before they shut entirely. She tossed a salute at her next paycheck and walked through the ship, making her way to the cockpit.

An alert sounded, and Rosita checked the exterior cameras. A small group of people had exited onto the pad and were firing at her. “Persistent little princess,” muttered Rosita. She started the ship and immediately turned it around, taking aim at the would-be heroes with the ship cannons.

_Just one hit_ , she thought. _One missile strike or laser blast, and…_

At the last second, she shrugged. She launched a volley at the wall behind them, enough to make them dive for cover and stop firing. That done, she turned the ship around and accelerated to launch velocity, barely feeling the pathetic stray laser strikes that hit her shield. Smiling to herself, she guided the _Legacy_ out of the upper atmosphere and into space. It wasn’t until she had made it safely off-planet that she sat back and allowed herself a moment of rest. She leaned back in her chair and smiled.

“I win.”


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wynonna faces Del Rey; Waverly, Nedley, and Shae try to make it out of Caspin City alive

Waverly rounded the corner and swept her rifle across the hallway. “Clear,” she shouted back, and Nedley and Shae ran up, followed slowly by Jeremy. “Okay,” said Waverly to Shae. “Which way?”

“Bustillos’ ship was on pad 18. It’s just down here.” Waverly rounded the corner, and Shae let out a breath. The young princess might be the same height as her, but in her current state she had Shae feeling like a child in front of a monolith.

“Still clear,” said Waverly. “Let’s get going.”

“Wait,” said Nedley. “I hear someone coming from…down there.” He pointed towards an adjoining corridor that led to another landing pad.

“They must have brought in more troops,” said Shae.

“Not enough.” Waverly leaned against the wall and held her rifle ready. Shae and Nedley got in position and aimed. Waverly turned and started firing, but her gun was immediately grabbed by a large black man dressed like a robot. After a second, he released his grip on the gun and said, “Waverly.”

“Dolls?” The princess threw her arms around the new arrival and said, “Where’s Wynonna? Is she here with you?”

“She want back to find Del Rey. I am heading after the bounty hunter we saw Captain Haught with—”

“Wait a minute,” asked Nedley. “How come you’re speaking more…human-like?”

Dolls shrugged. “I’ve…had some upgrades.” He noticed Shae and his gaze locked onto her as his eyes began to glow. “Identify.”

“Sh-Shae Pressman. I….used to run this facility.” Shae stammered. “You’re…a DLS unit?”

“With some work done,” said Waverly proudly. “Glad we found you, Dolls. Come on.” Waverly ran down the hall.”

“Princess!” shouted Dolls. He stood in front of another door and opened it. “Through here.”

Waverly looked back at Shea for confirmation and she nodded, pointing at the 18 embossed on the door. Dolls went through the door just as the sound of a ship taking off commenced. The group ran through and saw Bustillos’ ship hovering just over the pad.

“ _No!_ ” screamed Waverly. She started firing at the ship, but her blasts did little to weaken the spacecraft’s shield. The vessel turned around and Shae saw guns moving into position on the ship. “She’s locking on to us!” she shouted. “Move!”

Everyone dived for cover as best they could just in time for a volley of blasts to hit the wall behind them. The barrage stopped after ten long seconds, and Shae lifted her head just enough to see the bounty hunter speed off into the distance.

Waverly screamed again, a scream of pure frustration and rage. Shae held back in case the tiny woman decided to attack her again, but Waverly just stood there, looking into the distance.

As Waverly wept, Nedley turned to Shae. “Where’s our ship?”

Shae pulled up her wrist computer, thankful that they hadn’t disconnected the interior network yet. “Still where it was – maintenance bay 27-A.”

“Alright,” said Waverly, approaching them with a hardness to her eyes and voice. “Let’s go.”

“Waverly….” Shae said. “I—”

“I know. I get it, just….let’s just get to—”

“Incoming!” shouted Dolls, and immediately the unit was blasting laser fire from his eyes back into the hall. Wavery took up a position next to him, and Nedley and Shae took up one on the other side.

“Surrender immediately!” shouted one of the troopers. “Hey, what are you—” 

“They sound distracted,” said Waverly.

“Got it,” said Dolls. He stepped into the door and opened fire on the troopers, with Shae and Waverly leaning in to provide cover.

“Don’t shoot, I’m pretty!” someone shouted from inside.

Dolls stopped firing. “Jeremy?”

The young face of the cyborg poked around a corner where a large group of troopers lay. “Dolls?”

The pair raced into each other and were immediately hugging. “Where have you been, Dolls? I seriously missed you so much!”

“Took care of some things with Wynonna. What’s with your legs?”

“Rosita hit me with an EMP or something. Why’s your voice so silky smooth?”

Nedley cleared his throat. “Can we discuss this later?” He hefted his gun and said, “We still need to get to the _Stetson_.”

“Hang on,” said Dolls. He walked over to a nearby keypad and plugged in. A few seconds later, he smiled, “Got it. She’s still in the same bay, only—”

“Let’s move, then,” said Waverly, running off.

“But—”

“Good work, Dolls,” said Nedley. He left, and Shae followed. Dolls sighed, picked up Jeremy, and followed behind them.

Wynonna ran down the empty halls along the route Dolls had given her. It wasn’t that she was upset that there was no one to fight. Less people shooting at her was definitely a good thing. It was just that the whole thing felt very….trap-like.

_Well, if it is a trap, I’m not the one walking into it._

_Yes, you literally are_ , her brain reminded her.

“This is why I don’t talk to you much,” she said. She checked her map to make sure she was still on the right path. According to the data Dolls had sent her, the hunter’s path had started just ahead. Wynonna looked and the only doors in sight were two large ones leading into the same room, a theater of some sort. “Guess even doctors get bored,” she said. She went to the entrance and without hesitation pulled the door open.

She was in some kind of stadium. The room ahead of her sloped downward, and there was a pit filled with some very suspicious-looking machinery that she had no intention of getting too close to. The lights were off in every area but the operating area, and for all intents and purposes, she seemed to be alone….for the moment. She stepped fully into the room and let the door close.

 _Click_.

Wynonna turned and immediately pushed against the door, but it was no good – it had already locked. “Told you it was a trap,” muttered Wynonna. She sept Peacemaker around in front of her, keeping her eyes peeled for anything moving in the darkness.

“Hello, Wynonna.”

Wynonna turned and fired behind her, cursing when she realized she’d just killed a speaker. The voice laughed and said, “So glad you could make it, since we haven’t actually officially met.”

“Del Rey,” she said, looking around for where he was speaking from.

“That’s so formal,” Del Rey sighed. “Given your particular lineage, you can call me Robert.”

“Why not Bobo then, huh?” asked Wynonna as she descended to the second level, just above the pit. “That’s what Doc called you right before you killed him.”

“Ah, Doc…such a complicated man, John Henry was. So full of secrets and lies…”

Peacemaker grew warm in her hand. “Easy, Doc,” she whispered. To Del Rey, she shouted. “What, you don’t like secrets?”

“They have their purpose, I’ll admit, but the number that man had…” Del Rey laughed. “Come a little closer and I’ll tell you.”

Wynonna walked up to the platform above the operating room. She swept the pit but it was still empty. “Well, I’m here asshole, so where are you?”

“Hello,” said Del Rey…from _behind_ her. Wynonna turned and fired, but Del Rey jerked her gun hand to the side just as she pulled the trigger, sending the laser flying. She headbutted him, but he just took it and grabbed Peacemaker by the barrel, wrenching it aside again. Wynonna struggled with and shouted, “Make your peace, shithead!” and fired, but the blast went wide, instead striking some important-looking equipment nearby.

Del Rey screamed in fury as the console began sparking and overheating. He snarled, turned, and delivered a kick to her midsection that sent her flying backwards into the operating area. She let out a grunt as she landed, but nothing felt broken. Gun ready, she swept the stands above her, trying to figure out where Del Rey had gotten to.

From the speakers, a sigh rang out. “Well….that was unfortunate,” said Del Rey. “Ideally, you would have fallen into that aquarium in front of you and ended up as frozen as your friend Haught.”

“Well, you know, the best laid plans of redheads and revenants…” Wynonna spat, trying to find her foe.

Del Rey laughed. “True! So true. I think I see why Holliday liked you so much. You’ve got…spirit.”

“And you’ve got an annoying habit of not looking me in the eye when you talk to me,” she returned. “What, you afraid you’ll get a boo-boo, Bobo?”

She heard movement behind her, and turned just in time to see the hospital bed from the operating room fly through the air and slam into her. It carried her into a nearby office and smashed her up against a window at top speed. The window held, and the bed withdrew back to the other room. Just as Wynonna was getting to her feet, she heard a whistling and hit the floor.

Just in time; the bed flew over her and hurtled straight _through_ the window. A huge wind filled the room, blowing everything in the office around.

“You’re good,” said Del Rey from in front of her. Wynonna brought up Peacemaker and saw him entering the room, the wind making the fur-lined portion of his uniform flap around. He stopped moving when he saw the gun and said, “Really, you’ve lasted longer than I thought you would. I’m impressed, truly.” He looked out the window behind her. “Not much out there,” he observed. A catwalk, some maintenance platforms, and a really big drop.” He strode forward again. “You’re running out of places to move,”

“Says you,” said Wynonna. She leveled Peacemaker at him. “Make your peace.”

Del Rey froze. He was still twenty feet away, so Wynonna would have one, _maybe_ two, chances to shoot him. If her aim was good and she shot right away, problem solved. If she was off even slightly or Del Rey moved quick enough, she’d miss and he’d have her. She needed more space between them, but he wasn’t about to back up, which meant…

_Shit._

She fired a blast at him, and sure enough, he moved left away from it. Turning, she fired Peacemaker at the already weakened window, obliterating it. She leapt through the space where it had been and landed on the grated catwalk that ran around the shaft she was now in. The wind was even stronger now, and she reached for the thin railing to pull herself up.

Something snapped beside her. Wynonna saw the metal railing go flying away just as she was about to put her full weight on it. She felt herself falling briefly before stopping. She looked around and saw that she’d landed on one of the support tracks for the walkway, the ones a maintenance cart would ride along in case a patch was needed. The walkway was a couple feet above her. Moving slowly so as not to fall, Wynonna reached for the walkway. Her hand found purchase on the grating, and she held onto it to slide along until she reached the next post that the railing that had gone flying would have connected to.

 _There…just a few feet. You got this, Earp._ Wynonna slid along and hooked the hand still holding Peacemaker around the post. With that secured, she reached out for the grates with her left and pulled herself slowly to a standing position.

“Well,” said a familiar voice. “This is a predicament, isn’t it?”

A low laugh followed the words, and Wynonna turned to face its owner as Robert ‘Bobo’ Del Rey leaped out of the office onto the catwalk and began striding towards her, grinning like the devil.

Waverly ran silently through the empty halls, pausing only to turn when Shae shouted a direction at her. They had made it down to the repair levels without encountering anyone else, but Waverly knew that their luck couldn’t last.

“The repair bay is just ahead!” Shae was shouting. “We can make it! We—”

Blaster fire erupted head of them, and Shae ducked back. “Okay, she said. “Good news is, the ship is still there.”

“And the bad news?” said Waverly.

“There’s ten troopers right in front of it, and they’re all facing this way.”

“I got it,” said Dolls. “Hold this.” He turned to Nedley and put Jeremy in his hands. Waverly noticed that his eyes had gone yellow and his neck was glowing. “Dolls, are you sure? Maybe—”

“No time….for debate,” Dolls said, his body already committed to the action. “Five….seconds….”

Waverly nodded, and pulled Shae back. Shae followed and said, “What—”

“You’ll see.” Before Shae could say anything else, Dolls was breathing his lethal fire over the whole bay. Waverly and the rest waited until he had finished, and twenty-eight seconds later, his flames had shut off. “Clear,” he said.

The others moved into the hangar, and Waverly followed. For a second, she forgot their hurry and could only look at the destruction. The once-pristine bay had scorch marks in a fifty foot cone between them and the _Stetson_. Still-burning bodies were dotted here and there between them and the ship. The whole area smelled of gasoline.

Waverly looked at Dolls with astonishment. “Been taking lessons from Wynonna?”

Dolls looked back at her. “Shall we board?”

Waverly let it go and ran for the ship. Nedley was already aboard, and Shae was at a computer terminal nearby. What are you doing?” shouted Waverly.

“Opening the security gate,” said Shae. “Almost…got it!” A metal groaning erupted around them, and in front of the _Stetson_ the hangar bay doors began to open.

“Okay, great. On the ship, come on!” Shae ran for the ramp, and Waverly followed, with Dolls just behind her. They ran up to the flight deck and headed for the cockpit.

In the kitchen, Jeremy shouted, “Hey! What’s happening? Are we leaving?”

“Strap in!” said Waverly, running past him. Behind her, she saw Dolls heading for him to do just that. Ahead of her, Shae was taking a seat in the cockpit in one of the rear seats, and nedley was already in the pilot’s chair. Waverly ducked past her and took the co-pilot’s seat. “Are we set?”

“Yes, ma’am,” said Nedley. Without warning, the old man hit the controls and pulled the ship off the ground. The doors ahead of them finished opening, and without wasting time, the _Stetson_ and all its occupants left Caspin City behind.


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Del Rey reveals a secret to Wynonna; the team tries to escape Caspin for good.

As Wynonna balanced precariously on the maintenance track, Peacemaker gripped tightly in her hand and both arms wrapped around the railing, Del Rey strode forward with a cocky grin on his face. _God, what I wouldn’t give to be able smash that mouth in…_

Del Rey reached a spot just above her and crouched down, seemingly unaffected by the high winds. “Wynonna….” he said, his tone relaxed and normal, as though they hadn’t just been fighting to the death. “What are you doing?”

Wynonna grunted and tried to pull herself up and over, but the high wind nearly blew her away. “Getting a sunburn, asshole. What’s it look like?”

Del Rey laughed grimly at her predicament, and then….he held out his hand. “Wynonna…come with me.”

“No thanks,” she said, a strain in her voice. “I’ve got enough ugly asshats in my life.”

“Oh, you really should.” Del Rey smiled again, that giant smile that seemed to reveal all his teeth at once. _Hey, maybe that’s his revenant superpower – impeccable dentistry!_ “There is…. _so_ much I could tell you about your family if you do.”

“My _family?!_ ” Wynonna nearly shot him with Peacemaker, and would have if moving her hand to aim didn’t mean losing her grip on the rail. “You _killed_ my family, _asshole!_ Or you sent your boys to do it, which is the same goddamned thing!”

“Is that what you think?” said Del Rey. “Well, it appears that I bring good and better news for you, my dear Miss Earp. The good news is that I never ordered your father’s death, or anyone’s. I only told my boys to bring _this—_ ” He tapped the barrel of Peacemaker with his foot “—back to me. Sadly, they….were somewhat overzealous with the execution of those orders.”

“Yeah, everyone has an off-day.”

“Oh, but that’s not the best part, Wynonna. Do you want to _know_ the best part?”

 _Kill me._ “Sure.”

Del Rey crouched down and leaned in close to Wynonna’s face. “The best part is you killed your father…. _just_ your father.” He stopped speaking and waited.

Wynonna blinked slowly, working through the words. “….what?” she managed at last.

“Your sister’s _alive_ , ‘Nona’.” Wynonna felt her mouth drop open, and Del Rey, seeing the recognition in her eyes, smiled again. _Nona_ ….Willa’s old nickname for her, since young Wynonna couldn’t quite master her own name and had insisted on simply being Nona, a wish Willa had instantly latched on to.

Del Rey was speaking again. “She’s alive…and I know just where she is.”

“No…” said Wynonna. It was impossible, she had seen Willa up close. She had smelled the cooked skin. “No, you’re…you’re lying, she…she was…”

“Oh, she was in quite a bit of pain, but we were able to fix her up easily enough once we had her.” Del Rey extended his hand again. “I can take you to her right now. Just give me the gun and take my hand.”

Wynonna couldn’t process anything, her mind too overwhelmed with emotions. Willa….alive? And a prisoner of this asshole, the way Waverly had been? Or was it different, had they just let her go after the disaster at the homestead? But if that was the case, why hadn’t she ever come back home or tried to make contact? Why…

There were too many questions, and Del Rey was waiting. She looked at the gun in her hand, then at Bobo, then at the drop below. “Okay….” she said. “Here.” Keeping her finger outside the trigger and her grip firm, she slowly lifted the gun up and moved it closer to Del Rey.

Del Rey stared at the gun almost reverently. His hand closed around the barrel, and she screamed, “ _Now, Doc!_ ”

Instantly the gun grew white hot in her hand, and both her and Del Rey were screaming as the metal heated up to superboiling temperatures in less than two seconds. Del Rey withdrew his hand and roared in pain. Suddenly finding herself free with no tether, Wynonna felt herself going backwards. Quickly, she hugged Peacemaker – miraculously cool once again – to her chest.

She fell.

Del Rey growled and got up like a predator, instantly scanning the environment. In front of him, the Earp girl was losing her balance. He reached for her and—

She went over. Del Rey withdrew his fist and made a small sound of discontent. He strode back into the station proper. If the designs were even close to accurate, those shafts led into the superstructure keeping this station afloat, and after a series of turns to the maintenance rigs lining the underside of the station. He keyed his communicator.

The ops officer on the other end answered. “ _Sir._ ”

“Have my shuttle prepared, and send a squad of BEEs to sweep the underside of the station,” he said. “There may be survivors on the lower maintenance catwalks.”

“ _Capture or kill, sir?_ ”

“Kill.”

Wynonna plummeted through the open space below the catwalk, unable to catch her breath.

 _Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!_ Her mind cursed eternally on repeat as the windows flashed past. She felt herself being pulled towards the side and looked at what was coming. Her eyes widened and she nearly grinned in relief. A giant vent was opening in the side of the chamber. She narrowed herself as much as she could and aimed for the hole. As she passed through, she immediately felt a change in air pressure, slowing her rapid descent. She still couldn’t breathe in, but the lack of gravity in the tube was a welcome change. The door sealed itself shut, and three seconds later the room repressurized itself and gravity returned, bringing Wynonna crashing to the floor.

Groaning and wincing with pain, Wynonna slowly got up, careful to only use her left hand, as her right was both burning like hell and wrapped around Peacemaker still. “At least I didn’t lose you…” she muttered. As if to prove that the universe had a sense of humor, the gun slid from Wynonna’s hand. She screamed as it fell and when she could see again, she saw that a decent amount of skin had come off her palm, leaving a bloody mess behind. Without pausing, Wynonna took her shirt and ripped the front open down the middle. When she had enough cloth detached, she gingerly wrapped it around her hand as much as she could in an effort to protect it from the elements. It still hurt when she moved, so she shrugged her left arm out of her jacket and, after some effort, had managed a fairly tight sling that kept her right arm immobile but let her move with minimal pain. Finally, she picked Peacemaker back up and looked at it. “Doc.”

After a second, she heard Doc’s voice coming through the new two-way mic Juan Carlo had put in. “ _Wynonna, I am so—_ ”

“Save it,” she said, not wanting to hear any excuses. “Just tell me one thing: is what he said even remotely true?”

“ _Well, I have no idea, Wynonna! I’m not exactly in a position to find out, after all._ ”

 _Yeah, and neither am I_. Sighing, she twisted around and put the gun back in its holster, trying not to disturb her wounded hand. That accomplished, she stepped forward, searching for an exit. She could still hear wind from somewhere nearby…there was a door in the floor ahead of her. Carefully, she bent over and opened it.

Another gust of wind nearly caused her to lose her balance. She bent over and saw a small wire catwalk about ten feet below her, probably used for servicing the underside of the station. She looked back down the hall she was in to get her bearings when suddenly a wave of dizziness hit her and a voice at her belt was yelling, “ _Wynonna!_ ”

“I’m fine,” she said, her words slurring. “Just lost my…” She pitched forward and fell out the hole, landing awkwardly on her back. Her eyelids fluttered briefly, and she smiled. “That tickles…”

“ _Wynonna, get up!_ ” said Doc frantically, “ _You gotta keep moving, girl._ ”

“M’fine,” she said. “Just gonna have a nap first, m’kay?”

“ _No, not okay! Wynonna, get up! WYNONNA!”_

In the many layered systems of Peacemaker, Doc Holliday paced back and forth in his virtual prison. Wynonna had started going into shock; if she didn’t get help soon, there was every possibility that she’d be spending the rest of eternity on that platform, with nothing but a noncorporeal electronic ghost to keep her body company.

“Come on, Holliday…. _think_ , dammit!” He racked his brain, going over every possibility. He couldn’t help her himself; he was a memory, and Peacemaker had no limbs. He couldn’t assess her condition, because Peacemaker had nothing equal to eyes he could see through. He couldn’t signal for help; Peacemaker had—

 _Wait_. Peacemaker _did_ have. Closing his eyes, Doc navigated his way through the gun towards the radio he used to communicate. Drawing every ounce of power he could into it, Doc opened himself up to all frequencies in the area and said, “Attention, anyone in the area. This is Doc Holliday. If you can hear this, we are trapped on the catwalks beneath Caspin City. We need help…. _please_.” He waited five seconds and when no one answered, he began again. “Attention, anyone in the area…”

“That’s weird,” said Nedley from the pilot’s chair.

 _That should be Nicole there_ , Waverly thought but didn’t say. “What is it?” she said, her voice low and tired.

“There’s a signal coming from below the station.”

Shae leaned forward from her seat. “We’ve got some catwalks for station maintenance underneath. Can you make the signal any clearer?”

“Yeah, hang on.” Waverly watched disinterestedly as Nedley fiddled with the radio, then jumped as the room filled with Doc Holliday’s voice. “ _…we are trapped on the catwalks beneath Caspin City. We need help…._ please.”

Waverly grabbed the radio before Nedley could. “Doc!” she said, excitement creeping into her voice and soul. “It’s us!”

“ _Waverly? Lord, it is good to hear your voice, girl. Hang on, I’m trying to send a signal to you._ ”

“Doc, wait, what’s going on? Wynonna? How—”

“ _No time…to explain, Waverly_ ,” said Doc, his voice sounding strained. “ _Just follow my lead_.”

“Got him,” said Nedley. “We’re on the way.” Nedley turned the ship back toward Caspin City and aimed for the lower regions underneath.

“Keep an eye out for guests,” said Nedley.

“Do you see them anywhere?” asked Waverly.

“I don’t see….wait!” said Shae. “Two o’clock, over there!”

“I see it,” said Nedley. “Waverly?”

“I’ll head for the top hatch and let them in,” said Waverly. She glanced at Shae and said, “Shae….can you clear some room in the bunks? It sounds like we might need it soon.”

Shae seemed surprised, but nodded. “Whatever you need.”

“Good. Go.” Shae went to the back, and Waverly climbed the ladder into the circuit room. She hauled herself up, then ran to the ladder leading to the roof. She climbed it as quick as she could, praying that they could save _someone_ today.

“ _Heading in_ ,” Nedley said. “ _Standby_.”

“Roger,” Waverly said, triggering the roof hatch. As she did, the exterior wind nearly took her head off. She looked around and saw the catwalk Doc had mentioned, and…

“I see them!” she shouted. “Keep it steady!”

The _Stetson_ stopped moving forward, and Waverly put out a hand to steady herself. Wynonna lay unconscious but breathing on the metal surface, and her right hand was wrapped in a makeshift bandage and sling made from her shirt.

 _Examine her later, dummy!_ her mind shouted at her. Ducking against the wind, Waverly slid onto the catwalk below one of the railings. She made her way over to Wynonna and bent over to pull her to her feet, lightly tapping her cheek. “Come on, Wynonna…wake up…”

Wynonna’s eyelids fluttered and her head shifted. “….Waves?”

Waverly smiled and nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, it’s me, honey. Come on, let’s get you out of here.” Waverly slipped an arm behind Wynonna and pulled her up. A moan of pain escaped Wynonna, and Waverly steadied her. “It’s okay...the ship’s right there. Ni—Nedley’s got us.”

“Nicole…” Wynonna blearily focused on the younger woman. “I saw her…”

“Never mind that,” said Waverly quickly, trying to focus on the friend she could still save. “I’ll go in partway, then you. Okay?” Wynonna nodded, and Waverly went halfway down the ladder, gesturing for Wynonna to sit with her legs dangling in the hatch. Once Waverly was down far enough, she pulled on Wynonna’s legs until she was on the ladder.

Nedley’s voice sounded over the intercom. “ _Waverly, you in yet?_ ”

“Almost!” she shouted. She turned to get her arms around Wynonna and help her the rest of the way down. Although Wynonna had a brief slip, they both made it the bottom of the ladder. Waverly climbed partway back up and hit the close button on the hatch, then jumped back down. “We’re in!” she shouted. “Go!”

 _“Going!_ ” Waverly felt the ship move and heard the familiar sound of lasers hitting their shields, but it didn’t matter. They were safe and on their way off this planet. She moved to help Wynonna, who was leaning against the wall. “Wynonna…” she said. Her friend turned to face her, and Waverly nearly gasped. Wynonna’s normally rebellious devil-may-care attitude was, at least for the moment, gone. Instead, Waverly saw only shock and….

 _She’s afraid. Something made her afraid._ “Wynonna…what happened?”


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team has one last chance to make their getaway; Wynonna and Waverly have a talk

Del Rey was already moving towards the shuttle’s exit even before it had finished landing aboard the _Svane._ Gardner was waiting to greet him when he landed. “Brother Gardner,” said Del Rey. “Your report.”

“The bounty hunter has left the system unobstructed, as you ordered. As for the _Stetson_ , it took off from Caspin six minutes ago and should be reaching our area any moment."

“Good,” said Del Rey. “I’ll observe from the main deck.”

“Yes, sir,” said Gardner. Del Rey strode past him. As fun as this had been, things had gone on long enough. It was time to bring this chase to an end.

Waverly and Wynonna rode the lift down from the top deck to the flight deck. Shae was pacing back and forth in the kitchen and saw them immediately. “You got her,” Shae said. Then Shae saw her hand. “Jesus…what happened?”

“I don’t know, but she’s barely conscious.”

Shae looked around the room. “The table,” she said. She grabbed Wynonna’s other side and helped the princess lift her friend up onto it so the other woman was lying down.

“Okay, good. Now…” Shae grabbed a nearby knife and began cutting the sleeve of Wynonna’s jacket away. At Waverly’s cry, Shae spared her a glance. “She can kill me if she survives…and if she doesn’t want to make the whole thing sleeveless.” Shae bent back over and said, “I’ve got this. Go help Nedley.”

Waverly looked like she wanted to protest, but turned back to the cockpit. Someone coughed below her, and Shae saw that Wynonna was coming around. _No no no…._ “Hey, don’t move too much. You’ve been badly injured.”

“No shit.” Wynonna looked around. “Whiskey.”

Shae stopped. _Good idea_. She ran to the cabinet and grabbed the first bottle she could, uncorking it on the way back and handing it to Wynonna, tilting her head up slightly to avoid choking…not that the woman seemed to notice or care. Shae cleared her throat. “Your…hand seems to have suffered extreme burns and—”

“I have a sister,” said Wynonna randomly. “I thought I didn’t, but I do….or double-do, actually.”

“Uh-huh,” said Shae. “Just keep talking, alright?”

There was silence, and Shae looked up to see that Wynonna had passed out again. “Probably best,” Shae muttered, as she began her examination.”

“How is she?” asked Nedley.

“Torn up, but alive,” Waverly replied, taking a seat next to Nedley. “How are we?”

“Cleared atmo, now we just need to clear the destroyer there.”

“If Shae’s people actually fixed the hyperdive, we’ll be all set.” Waverly went to the hyperdrive controls and quickly typed in a three-system jump sequence. “Okay,” she said nervously. “Hit it.”

Nedley pulled the trigger for lightspeed, waited five seconds, and screamed in frustration. “Stupid….useless….” He cursed loudly and ran back to Shae.

Shae had just finished wrapping a new bandage around Wynonna’s hand when Nedley grabbed her. “Answers.”

Shae looked confused. “Randall, what—”

“The goddamn hyperdrive is still out, even though _you_ told us it was fixed!”

“It should have been! I don’t….” Realization hit her and Waverly at the same time.

“Del Rey.”

“Him or his men….they were all over for some time.”

Around them, the ship shook. “Hell,” said Nedley. “Incoming fighters!”

“What’s going on out theere?” said Jeremy.

“Hold still,” Dolls replied, following the circuits in his young friend closely. “The ship can’t launch into hyperdive. The church messed around with it and wiped its core.”

Jeremy stared at him, speechless. “How do you know that?”

“The computer told me.”

“And if the computer told you you could get stronger by flying through an electrical storm, would you?”

Dolls moved one final wire, and Jeremy was out for five seconds before waking back up. He slid off the bed and took an experimental step forward. When it worked, he leapt up and down and hugged Dolls. “You did it!” cheered Jeremy.

“Come on, we need to do something else,” said Dolls.

“What?”

“Save everyone.”

Waverly dashed back to the cockpit as Nedley ran upstairs. “Okay…nothing to it.” She sat in one of the flight chairs and grabbed the controls. She pulled hard right and the _Stetson_ was flying away from the _Svane_. Looking around her, she saw the switch for the intercom and hit it. “Whatever you all are gonna do, do it fast!”

“Excuse me,” said someone behind her. Waverly turned and saw Dolls climbing up into the server room. “Dolls? What’s happening?”

“We know what the problem is,” said Dolls. “Don’t worry, we’ll have it fixed quick.”

Waverly watched silently as Dolls climbed up and entered the room above her before closing the door behind. “I hope you’re right, old friend.”

Dolls climbed up into the circuitry room and looked around. **Okay, Jeremy…where am I going, man?**

**The housing for the lightspeed drives should be in the southwest tower…pretty much the back row and furthest to the left when you enter.**

Dolls looked for the tower Jeremy mentioned and saw it right away. **Alright…let’s see what we got here…** Dolls opened the main panel and saw several connectors lying across the inner circuitry. **You’re kidding….that’s it?**

**What? You found it?**

**They just unplugged it and left it. Hang on.** Dolls disconnected from Jeremy and began plugging things back in.

Waverly was almost in full panic mode now. The _Svane_ was inches away, and they were still without a working hyperdrive. Any second now….

Without warning, all the lights on the control panel turned green. “That did it!” she shouted to whoever was in the room with her. “Activating!” She turned the ship around and hit the switch, and the _Stetson_ roared off into lightspeed and safety. Waverly jumped out of her seat with a cheer and saw Nedley on the floor beside her, the sudden jump catching him off guard.

“You fixed it,” she told him happily. “Good job, sheriff.”

Nedley just blinked at her in confusion. “I did?”

Wynonna flexed her fingers experimentally. _One….two….three…four…five…_ She looked at the attending physician and said, “It’s good. No pain.”

Shae nodded. “I’m glad. Damage like you took, the normal option would be a few skin graft procedures over the course of two weeks minimum, if not a full prosthetic.”

“Hey, being part-robot might be fine for some folks, lady-doc, but I gotta keep my body pure, you know?”

It was three days later. After escaping Caspin, they had managed to rendezvous with the rest of the fleet as originally planned, although they were short one redhead when they did. Shae had managed to slide right into the command structure fairly easily. Apparently screwing the church out of two of their biggest desires was an instant path to acceptance with those guys.

Wynonna looked across the room towards where Waverly stood staring out the window, Nicole’s flight jacket still wrapped around her. “How’s she doing?”

“You haven’t talked to her? She’s heartsick.”

Wynonna nodded. Since they’d arrived, the normally steadfast and hyperactive princess had been withdrawn, sullen, and barely talked to anyone. Wynonna understood it – she was pretty much in mourning, after all, even if the object of that feeling wasn’t technically dead – but that didn’t mean she approved of it.

Curious about something, Wynonna turned to Shae. “How come you’re not?”

Shae smiled. “Because Nicole Haught only ever loved one person in her life, and it wasn't me.” Shae stepped away for a moment and came back with a skin glove. “Wear that. It’ll help with any lingering pain, especially when it comes to firing that big gun of yours.”

Wynonna nodded and put the glove on. “You know the plan?”

Shae nodded. “Yes. One good thing about being a doctor – someone always wants your services….even if that someone is a sleazy gangster who’s recently arranged to have someone’s ex-wife put on display in their main hall.”

“If you need a base until then, the homestead should still be in one piece. Just don’t make much noise and you’ll be fine.”

Shae nodded. “Good luck, Wynonna Earp.”

Wynonna shook her hand. “Thanks a lot, Shae Press-a-woman.”

“That’s not sticking.”

“It might.”

Shae shook her head and smiled. “Nedley’s waiting at the ship. I need to go.”

“Right.” Wynonna released the doctor from the handshake. “Be seeing you, Doc.”

Shae nodded and headed for the exit. “One more thing, Earp…” She looked pointedly at Waverly and then back at Wynonna. “ _Talk to her_.”

The door closed before Wynonna could respond. She looked over at the young princess who had been through so much already. _Okay….here we go._

Waverly stared out the window as Nedley and Shae flew off in the _Stetson_. Although they knew Rosita’s ultimate destination, they didn’t know how long a journey it would be or how soon Rosita would bother to make the delivery.

 _Delivery…_ She shivered at the coldness of the word and wrapped Nicole’s jacket closer around her. Such a bland term being used to describe one so good and strong and warm. She wanted to be out there right now, tearing up every planet and every spaceship until they had found her and—

A hand fell on Waverly’s shoulder. She turned and saw Wynonna, looking uncharacteristically somber. “We’ll get her back, baby girl.”

Waverly sniffled and nodded. “She…she told me to find you and stay with you.”

Wynonna nodded and pulled her close. “She tell you anything else?”

( _She’s your--_ )

“She…tried to say something at the…just as it happened. Something about you and me…” Waverly looked at Wynonna’s face, and Wynonna stared back into hers. Slowly, a look of shock formed on Waverly’s face, and Wynonna shrugged and made a half-smile. “Surprise,” she said.

Waverly tried to think. “So….Mother…”

“Ran off of Purgatory after having her fill of my dad and found a guy who treated her better…no. Treated her _right_.”

Waverly nodded. “Nicole knew?”

“ _Knows_. She _knows._ Don’t start using the past tense with her, baby girl…and yeah. I…kinda let it slip after the ceremony.”

Waverly thought about this. “So….for six months—”

“She wanted me to tell you. She tried to get me to, but I kept putting it off. Kept saying I didn’t know how to handle it, or….” Wynonna stopped talking and looked at her, her eyes filled with regret. “You forgive me?”

“Forgive you?” Waverly said quietly. She looked at Wynonna – tough, unstoppable, unshakeable Wynonna, who had faced down Robert Del Rey and walked away; who had blown up the deadliest battle station that had ever been conceived from the inside out; who was standing in front of her like a child that had wrecked her parents’ most prized possession entirely by accident and was sure hellfire was about to rain down on them.

She stepped in front of the older woman – her older _sister_ – and said, “You’re my big sister. How could I not?” and hugged her deep. The sound that came out of Wynonna’s mouth told Waverly all she needed to know about how much this meant to her.

After a minute, Waverly pulled back and studied Wynonna with new eyes. “So, what do we do now…sis?”

Wynonna smiled at the term. “First, we get out of this hospital. Second, we start tracking down your girl and getting her back where she belongs.”

“You really think it’ll be that easy? An Earp and a princess against the whole galaxy?”

“Hell yeah…and it’s _two_ Earps, Waves. Even if our dads are different, we still got Mama’s blood, which means you _are_ my sister, and don’t you ever forget it. We’re the team that all those other losers have to beat, and there aren’t enough slugs, zombies, or crazy exs in the galaxy to slow us down.”

“Two Earps…” said Waverly slowly. Despite everything, a huge grin threatened to fill her face.

Wynonna smiled back and hugged her sister as the fleet moved through space. “They got no idea what’s coming for them, do they?”

“Damn straight,” said Waverly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aw, huggles!
> 
> Can't wait for the fanart of badass future Wynonna with a glove on her Peacemaker-firing hand.
> 
> See you in the epilogue!


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meanwhile....

Aboard the _Legacy,_ Rosita punched in the coordinates for Purgatory. It was a long trip there from Caspin, and she didn’t want anything surprising her on the journey.

A light began beeping insistently on her console. Checking the sender, Rosita rolled her eyes. She hit the receive button and found herself staring once more at an angry looking Del Rey. “Bobo,” she said. “You miss me that much already, babe?”

“The Earp witch got away,” he replied bluntly.

“Of course she did. She’s too resourceful a fighter, just like me. Plus, at the end of the day…you’re really not as big a killer as you like to pretend to be.”

Del Rey bristled. “I didn’t realize it was ‘talk about how great the Earps are’ day.”

“Well, you can’t kill what you don’t fully understand. If I learned nothing else from you and Daddy, I learned that.”

Del Rey’s face softened. “Are you okay? From what I saw on the security feed, some of those shots—”

“Nothing I can’t handle.” A power warning started blinking in her eye display. “Hey baby, I gotta cut this short. Loblaw needs to be told that I got a prize coming in for her, and you know what she can be like.”

“Fine,” Del Rey paused briefly. “You sure you’re okay?”

Rosita rolled her eyes, and her vision wavered briefly. “I’m fine, just need a recharge. We’ll talk later.”

“Oh, at least let me—” Rosita hit the disconnect button just as the beeping on her belt became more insistent. She got up from her command seat and turned off her power source, heading towards the cargo area. The image that the rest of the universe saw when they talked to her disappeared, and it was replaced by another shape – one with brown hair a shade lighter than people normally saw when they looked at her, green eyes that seemed devoid of any genuine emotion, and a face and chest that were covered with burn scars that had been with her for the past twenty years.

Rosita approached the frozen shape in her cargo hold and saw the pain and terror permanently etched on it. Although it was rare for organic beings to go through the freezing process, it had happened occasionally, though rarely on purpose. Rosita had read what few reports she could find from survivors, and all described being awake without end, able to see and hear everything, but unable to communicate, or look away, or even breathe…. but still somehow alive.

“I bet you’re pretty uncomfortable in there,” the person known to the galaxy as Rosita said to Nicole. “Don’t know if you’ve ever been in prison, but it’s probably a cake walk compared to what you’re going through now. If it helps, it isn’t personal…. but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t getting some small pleasure from this. Let’s face it – you’re a nomad, and people like you just aren’t that good to be around.” She laughed. “By the way…I saw what you were saying to her about Wynonna. All this tech is great for reading lips, even in the _worst_ circumstances. You know…I’m actually probably doing Waverly a favor keeping you away from her. It’s funny – I didn’t know her for almost all of my life, and now here I am getting rid of one of the biggest threats to her happiness.” She patted the block holding the frozen smuggler, then turned and walked back to the cockpit. She paused near the light control and looked back at her immobile passenger. “Guess it’s true; sisters really do have to stick together.”

With that, the bounty hunter formerly known as Willa Earp turned off the lights and went back to work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ohhhhh, you thought I meant WYNONNA with the ttile. 
> 
> Yup, Rosita has been Willa with holotech this whole time. I tried to broadcast it with the relationship with Del rey and giving 'Rosita' a bunch of Willa lines from the show (the ginger butch line, for example). Did any of you catch it? Let me know in the comments!
> 
> Gonna be taking a little break after this, but fear not -- Return of the heir is still coming.


End file.
